CROOKSTON GIRL’S BASKETBALL SUFFERS FIRST LOSS OF THE SEASON AGAINST EAST GRAND FORKS                                                                                                                                          

The Crookston Pirates girl’s basketball team dropped its first game of the season 55-33 against the East Grand Forks Green Wave in a Section 8AA game played at the Crookston High School Gymnasium.
Emma Borowicz scored the first three points of the game for Crookston, but the Green Wave managed to jump out to a 10-3 lead after a Chloe Torgerson scoop shot in the lane. Trailing 17-8, Emma Borowicz kicked a pass out to Danielle Boyle along the right-wing allowing Boyle to spot up and make the three-pointer cutting Crookston’s deficit down to 17-11. East Grand Forks used a 4-0 run to take a 21-12 lead before Gretchen Theis knocked down a jump shot from the right side of the floor to pull within 21-15. Trailing 23-15, Kasey Cwikla pulled down an offensive rebound for the Pirates and was fouled while releasing her put-back shot, making the floater despite the contact cutting the visitors’ lead down to 23-17. Emma Boll dribbled down the left side of the paint in the closing minutes of the first half and made a lay-up as she was falling down to pull the Pirates within 28-19, but an East Grand Forks’ free throw from Breanna Olson gave the Green Wave a 29-19 halftime lead. “We’ve got to give them some credit because they played really well,” said Crookston head coach Darin Zimmerman of his opponent’s performance in the first half. “We just kind of forced things too much. We hadn’t really reversed the ball very much and as soon as we did that, out of a timeout, we hit two reversals, found Emma Boll and she made a tough shot and we just didn’t do that consistently enough. Get those ball reversals, get good spacing and attack that zone a little more. Our defense was really good and if we keep playing defense like that we’re still going to win a lot of games, but offensively we have to take care of the ball a little bit better because we gave them a few opportunities and took a few extra shots away from ourselves by turning the ball over.”
In a low-scoring second half, Emma Borowicz started Crookston’s comeback bid with a drive down the left side of the paint finishing her lay-up to bring the Pirates within 29-21. Borowicz added two free throws continuing the 4-0 run to start the half before the Green Wave scored seven unanswered points separating ahead 36-23. Hayden Winjum countered with a three-pointer for the Pirates bringing the hosts back within ten. The Green Wave answered right back with another triple to pull back ahead by thirteen. Trailing 41-31, East Grand Forks’ Macy Skyberg banked in a three-pointer regaining firm control for the visitors who would not see their lead threatened the rest of the night handing Crookston its first defeat of the year 55-33. “The girls played really hard tonight,” summarized Zimmerman. “I am very, very pleased and proud of the effort, but we dug ourselves a hole and the problem is when you dig yourselves a hole, you have to play really well on the defensive end because you can’t let that lead grow and you don’t work as hard on offense because you have to exert yourself just to get back into the game. I’m really happy with the way we played in terms of our toughness. I think we’ve got to be a little bit stronger on offense.”
The Pirates fall to 4-1 and return to the court on Saturday when Crookston travels to Thief River Falls to take on the Prowlers at Ralph Engelstad Arena at 5:00 p.m. on KROX. East Grand Forks improves to 2-2.