Takeaways: Albany uses fast tempo, depth, balance in win over Foley

ALBANY — The Albany girls basketball team prepared for not only a conference game, but a key section game against Foley at home on Friday night.

A win could separate the Huskies from the Falcons for that No. 1 seed in the section standings. A loss could make it more interesting heading into the final month of the regular season.

Albany took care of business with a dominating 71-33 win over Foley and showed why the Huskies are atop the section and conference standings.

Here are a few takeaways from Friday's game between Albany and Foley.

Foot on the pedal

The Huskies have been known this season to have a fast tempo during their games. Albany likes to start the game with fast break opportunities and always keep the ball moving.

That mentality carried into Friday's game, and Albany started flying down the court from tipoff. It allowed the Huskies to gain a small lead in the beginning and extend it to a 33-18 lead at the half.

"That's usually our plan of attack," said Albany's head coach Aaron Boyum. "That's usually who we want to be, and I think people probably know that. We feel like we have good athletes that perform well in space and so we want to be able to utilize that."

It was used to perfection in this game as different players had open shots and easy baskets on breakaway opportunities.

Heading into halftime, the momentum was on Albany's side and the,re was one big question going into the second half: Would the momentum carry into the last half?

The simple answer was yes. Alyssa Sand described the mentality at halftime as keeping the foot on the pedal.

"We always say it's 0-0 at halftime," Sand said. "We always want to come out strong. We regroup as a team."

Albany definitely came out firing in the second half, outscoring Foley 38-15 and controlling the entire half to earn a wide-margin win.

The Huskies players and coaches understand what the victory means for this team and how it helps them in conference and section standings. These two teams will play again later in February at Foley, so Albany understands it's not over.

Depth, balance for the Huskies

When teams play with a fast tempo, Boyum said it's nice to have some depth to keep fresh legs in the game. Albany has that needed depth to provide new faces and new talent on a consistent basis for opponents.

Last year, the Huskies had Paige Meyer that would average 20 to 25 points a game. This year, there's no player that averages those types of numbers regularily.

The Huskies rely on everyone to step up and play their role. So far, it's been working really well.

"We got in foul trouble today, so to have more depth on the bench and them coming off and scoring and working hard just like everyone else, it really helps," Sand said.

Albany had eight players score on Friday and seven scored at least seven points. Sand led the team with 17 points, while Kylan Gerads scored 13 points as the other double-digit player.

Marissa Voigt and Tatum Findley each finished with eight points, while Savanna Pelzer, Bailey Keske and Madi Herkenhoff ended up with seven points each.

The Huskies faced some foul trouble in the first half and had to sit a couple starters for a handful of minutes. The players from the bench came in and played their roles perfectly to allow the lead to expand before the half.

"That depth piece was big for us last year," Boyum said. "With the style of basketball we want to play, up and down, you have to have some sort of depth to go with that. So our depth has been huge in this program for a long time."

What's next?

The win improves Albany's record to 12-4 on the season with two of those losses coming from top schools in Minnetonka and Minnehaha Academy. The other two losses were from Providence Academy and Sauk Centre.

Albany has a tough stretch of games to close out the regular season. The Huskies have 10 games left, and only three of them are against teams with losing records (Mora, Cathedral and Little Falls).

The rest of the foes are .500 or better and present a challenge. Albany will host Mora at 7:15 p.m. on Feb. 3.

Then, the Huskies travel to Alexandria High School to play Menahga at 12:45 p.m. on Feb. 5. Menahga is 15-1 this season.

After those two teams, Albany will play teams like Milaca (10-4) and Fergus Falls (12-4) at home and then a four-game road trip, playing Zimmerman (9-8), Holdingford (10-6), Foley (11-5) and Cathedral (7-9). The season ends with two games at home against Little Falls (4-13) and Pierz (12-4).

The Huskies are currently sitting as the No. 1 seed for Section 6AA standings in front of Foley and Sauk Centre. The QRF rankings have Albany at No. 10 overall in Class AA, and Foley and Sauk Centre at No. 14 and 19, respectively.

It's a close race for that No. 1 seed in the section, but if the Huskies can win games in this dominating fashion, it'll be difficult for Foley or Sauk Centre to take over the top spot.

Brian Mozey is the high school sports reporter for the St. Cloud Times. Reach him at 320-255-8772 or bmozey@stcloudtimes.com. Follow him on Twitter @BrianMozey.

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This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: Takeaways: Albany uses fast tempo, depth, balance in win over Foley