The Austin girls basketball team opened its season with some offensive struggles as it lost to Stewartville 57-45 in Ove Berven Gym Tuesday.

The Packers (0-1 overall) held a 10-6 lead early on when Emily Hegna broke free for a lay-up, but the Tigers closed the half on a 19-7 run and Austin got no closer than four points in the second half.

The Tigers (1-1 overall) were able to control possession by forcing multiple Austin turnovers and Stewartville also was able to damage on the offensive boards.

“I thought we did alright for it being game one. This is a process,” Austin head coach Eric Zoske said. “There are a couple of things I saw that we have to get better at that I hadn’t seen in practice. This is a starting point and it now we can move on to tomorrow and try to get better.”

The Packers received a boost from their bench as sophomore Erica Lundberg had 11 points and four rebounds and eighth grader Emma Duycha had five points.

“I thought all four of our bench players played phenomenal,” Zoske said. “Erica came in and played well and we had good scoring off our bench. That being said, our starters have got to do a little better job of putting the ball in the hoop. But our bench did great.”

Abby Lewis had 12 points and four rebounds for Austin and Chloe Sheehan had three steals.

Stewartville 25  32  —  57

Austin 17  28  —  45

Austin scoring: Abby Lewis, 12; Erica Lundberg, 11; Kiwi VanZant, 9; Emily Hegna, 5; Emma Dudycha, 5; Paiton Schwab, 2; Kyra Walters, 1; free throws: 60 percent (6-for-10)