The La Crescent girls basketball team has had some tough luck as of late, and two games against non-conference opponents last week didn’t remedy its ails.

Lancers 42, Rushford-Peterson 49. The Lancers traveled to Rushford for the second game of the Trojans Holiday Tournament Dec. 29. La Crescent let a six-point halftime lead slip away and fell in overtime.

The Lancers held a 23-17 lead at the break, but R-P (3-4) outscored La Crescent 19-13 in the second half. However, Leah Albrecht had a great tip-in in the final seconds of the game to send the game to overtime. But from there, R-P’s Rachelle Ruberg took over, scoring six of her 11 points in overtime to lead the Trojans to the win.

Albrecht led the Lancers with 11 points, and Jenna McDonough chipped in 9.

"We had a lot of turnover and forced our shots," co-captain Albrecht said. "We didn’t look to push the ball with control."

Co-captain Kayla Tripp said the Lancers’ transition game wasn’t good, re-bounding was sub-par, and overall, the defense was lazy.

"We just need to play as a team and use our strengths," Albrecht said, "(by) finishing our shots, taking care of the ball and rebounding."

La Crescent scoring: Leah Albrecht 11, Jenna McDon-ough 9, Sarah Olson 7, Liz Gilbertson 4, Kayla Tripp 3, Becca McCoy 2, Skylar Minegar 2, Kayla Sandvik 2, Stacy Schiltz 2.

Lancers 29, La Crosse Aquinas 40. La Crescent visited La Crosse Aquinas Saturday and was held to a season-low point total, as the Blugolds (6-3) prevailed.

Aquinas, which is 5-0 when holding teams to under 40 points, led 21-14 at halftime, then outscored La Crescent 19-15 in the second half to earn the victory. McDonough paced the Lancers (3-5) with 11 points.

"We had too many turnovers at the beginning, giving Aquinas an early lead," Tripp said. "We didn’t finish, and didn’t do the little things right."

The transition defense was better than the previous game against Rush-ford, Tripp said, as the Lancers anticipated better and didn’t give the Blugolds many second-chance shots. The Lancers pulled to within 3 at one point, but its own missed shots thwarted any chance of a comeback win. Now, La Crescent will focus on running its play correctly, setting up the offense, and taking better care of the ball, Tripp said.

"We need to continue to improve each and every game," head coach Shelley Gates said. "We are working at getting better offensively and playing together as a team."

La Crescent scoring: McDonough 11, Olson 6, Albrecht 5, Schiltz 4, McCoy 3.

The Lancers returned to HVL action Tuesday when it hosted Winona Cotter. Tonight (Thursday) it travels to Stewartville for a 7:30 p.m. game.