Turnover bug infects Eagle boysAlbert Lea's quickness puts pressure on Eagles

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- While the flu bug has been slowing area teams, it was the turnover bug that did in the New Ulm Eagles Saturday afternoon.

Albert Lea forced 35 New Ulm turnovers and scored 41 resulting points to race to a 83-28 win in non-conference boys basketball.

All-State guard Ben Woodside led the Tigers with a game-high 23 points. He was the only Albert Lea player in double figures as 13 of the 24 players on the Tiger roster scored.

Tony Mielke led New Ulm (0-2) with 13 points.

"We knew that we were going to have trouble with pressure defenses," New Ulm coach Pat Burmeister said. "That is why we looked okay in the first quarter (New Ulm trailed only 15-11). We played alright in that quarter -- we made some mistakes (six turnovers), but it was still a ballgame. But they came out in the second quarter and started full-court pressing."

Both teams exchanged baskets to begin that second quarter before Albert Lea's quickness and New Ulm's inability to handle the Tiger pressure took its toll.

Albert Lea ran off 25 straight points to begin the second quarter, with a Mike Behrends basket. New Ulm then turned the ball over on their next seven possession allowing the Tigers to take a 34-13 lead. Albert Lea then scored a basket without the aid of an Eagle turnover when Ryan Moore turned a feed from Ben Woodside into a basket.

Three more consecutive New Ulm turnovers led to six more points and a 42-13 lead before Mielke canned a two-pointer.

Mielke scored all six of the Eagles' second quarter points.

Brock Sorenson canned a 3-ball with one minute left in the first half to give the Tigers a 48-17 lead at halftime.

It was a quarter that saw New Ulm turn the ball over 12 times and take only four shots.

Twenty-one of Albert Lea's 33 second-quarter points came courtesy of New Ulm turnovers.

"They came out and pressed and trapped us and we struggled with that," Burmeister said. "We do not pass the ball well enough -- we don't see the floor well enough. It is a good indication of where we are at right now. The kids know that there are things that we need to work on."

Albert Lea kept up the pressure in the third quarter, outscoring the Eagles 9-2 to take a 57-19 lead on the 22nd turnover by New Ulm. A Mielke basket coupled with consecutive baskets by Joey Geistfeld and Josh Date -- the only time in the game that New Ulm scored back-to-back baskets -- saw the Eagles down 51-25.

The Tigers carried a 66-25 lead into the fourth quarter and scored the first 12 points of the final quarter to assume a 78-25 lead before Tom Wendinger hit a basket with two minutes left in the game.

"We need to come to practice and work hard to fix these things before the end of the year," Burmeister said. "We need to know what we need to do against the press. We are three steps behind on where we should be and passing the ball to people two seconds too late. We did not get the ball across the time line a lot in the second half.

"We cannot fix these things in games -- they have to be fixed in practice," Burmeister added.

New Ulm also lost the "B" game 55-30. Adam Johnson led the Eagles with 12.

ALBERT LEA 15 33 18 17-- 83

NEW ULM 11 6 8 3 -- 28

ALBERT LEA (83): Woodside 23, Sorenson 8, Skophammer 8, Behrends 8, Moore 7, Habben 6, Thorn 4, Steele 4, Klatt 4, Keyeski 4, Miller 3, Marty 2, Dahl 2.

NEW ULM (28): Mielke 13, Babel 8, Geistfeld 2, Wendinger 2, Date 2, Gronewold 1.