Austin Packers girls basketball downs Albert Lea 79-57

Hope Dudycha drained four 3-pointers and scored 17 of her 22 points in the second half as the Austin Packers girls’ basketball team won their second game in a row and third in their last four 79-57 over the Albert Lea Tigers in front of a big crowd at Ove Berven Gym Friday evening.

Austin never trailed in the game and jumped out to a 13-2 lead, and they later pushed their lead to 15 at 27-12 before the Tigers rallied back with a 9-0 run to trim the lead to six at 27-21.  The Packers pushed the lead back to nine at the half 35-26, and they opened the second half on an 11-4 run to increase their lead to 50-32, and their lead would stay above double digits for the rest of the game.  Hope Dudycha drained all four of her 3-pointers in the second half, and along with a 3-pointer from her sister Emma and two from Cassidy Shute, the Packers took their biggest lead of the game at 64-40 before Albert Lea made one more push with an 8-0 run to trim the Packer lead to 16.  After a timeout, Austin boosted the lead back above 20 and wound up outscoring the Tigers 44-31 in the half on their way to the win.

Besides Dudycha’s 22 points, Cassidy Shute and Olivia Walsh each tallied 18 points in the win, Reana Schmitt chipped in nine points, Emma Dudycha and Ajiem Agwa each scored five points and Kiru Othow tallied two points for the Packers, who raised their record to 15-3 in the Big 9 Conference and 17-4 overall on the season.

Austin returns to action at home Tuesday evening against the Northfield Raiders, with the varsity tip-off scheduled for 7:30 p.m.