#3 PERHAM UPENDS PIRATE BOYS BASKETBALL

The Crookston Pirate Boys Basketball team struggled on the offensive end and the #3 ranked Perham Yellowjackets built a 20-point lead in the first half and used a strong second half to pull away for an 86-51 season-opening victory in a Section 8AA game played at the new Perham High School gymnasium.
Perham started the game with outstanding defense and had a bunch of offensive rebounds that led to baskets to build a 17-3 lead to start the game. “They (Perham) are just good.  They are highly skilled and really athletic, long and lean and strong and man for man we aren’t there yet,” said Pirate Coach Greg Garmen. “We didn’t do a good job of rebounding and we struggled offensively with the Perham playing some good defense.  We didn’t pass the ball very well either and that didn’t help either.”  Crookston stopped the run with a Walker Winjum basket and Nick Garmen had a nice fadeaway baseline jump shot to bring the Pirates within 10 points (17-7) with 10:51 left in the half.  Perham answered with a 13-3 run with the lone Pirate points coming on a Caden Osborn three-pointer and the Yellowjackets had a 30-10 lead with six minutes left in the half.  Crookston trailed 39-21 late in the half when Nick Garmen made a three-pointer before he missed a free throw and the rebound was tipped out to the Pirates and Nick got the ball and made a 25-foot three-point shot and the Pirates trailed 39-24 going into halftime.  “That was good,” said Coach Garmen. “We ended with a little momentum going into halftime.”
Crookston started the second half strong with Jaden Lubarski and Caden Osborn scoring the first six Pirate points of the half.   Perham started to head up from outside and five three-pointers and started to pull away with a 23-3 run over an eight-minute span for a 67-33 lead halfway through the second half.  “At that stretch, we left some guys open and Perham started to heat up and when Caden goes out of the game we struggle rebounding because we aren’t a good rebounding team yet,” said Coach Garmen. “We will work at it and get the kids to be more active on the glass.”  Both teams went deep to the bench the rest of the game and Perham won 86-51.  “We saw some good things and know what we know what to work on and we know the speed of the game at the varsity level,” said Coach Garmen. “We have a few practices to get ready for our next game and after seeing a team like Perham, it should seem a little slower at Bagley.”
Crookston drops to 0-1 on the year and will travel to Bagley on Tuesday.  Perham improves to 1-0 on the year.
J.V. – Perham won 66-33     C squad – Perham won 56-23

Caden Osborn with a reverse layup and Josh Bernia with a layup

Nick Garmen drives by a Perham defender

The new Perham High School gymnasium that the Pirate Boys Basketball team had the pleasure to play in tonight