BRECKENRIDGE DUNKS THEIR WAY TO A 97-78 VICTORY OVER PIRATE BOYS BASKETBALL

The Crookston Pirate Boys Basketball team had a great start and led by as many as 14 points in the first half, but Breckenridge finished the first half strong and cruised the rest of the way for a 97-78 victory in a Section 8AA game played in Breckenridge.

The game started fast and furious from the opening tip and the teams combined for 96 first-half points!   The teams battled back and forth to start the game with four lead changes and Breckenridge built a 7-4 lead.  Crookston responded with some great shooting on an 11-0 run behind three points apiece from Jaden Lubarski, Walker Winjum, and Nick Garmen and a layup from Caden Osborn for a 15-7 over four minutes into the game. “The kids came out and played loose with nothing to lose early on,” said Pirate Coach Greg Garmen.  “Jaden got us going early on and others stepped up.” Crookston led 19-9 when 6’8 senior Noah Christensen (NDSU basketball recruit) stole the ball at half court and had a big two-hand dunk.  Crookston’s Jack Garmen answered with a three-pointer only to have Christensen go in for another dunk and this time he was fouled and converted the three-point play to cut the Pirate lead down to eight points (22-14).  The Pirates responded with back-to-back three-pointers from Nick Garmen and Jaden Lubarski to build a 28-14 lead with 10 minutes left in the half.  Crookston held onto a 33-19 lead halfway through the half when Breckenridge Coach Arly Ohm called a timeout and whatever he said about playing better defense worked in a big way.  Breckenridge responded with suffocating defense and turned Pirate turnovers into easy points and outscored Crookston 37-7 in the final 9:11 of the half to build a 56-40 lead at halftime. “When Caden got his second foul halfway through the first half we took him out and they started to go on their run,” said Coach Garmen. “We were up 14 and all of a sudden they were up by 14 at halftime.  They scored a lot of points going to the rim.  Breckenridge’s defense forced us into 15 first-half turnovers and that hurt us.”

Breckenridge started the second half with a bang when Christensen had an alley-oop dunk (his third dunk of the game), but Crookston played even with the Cowboys outscoring them 13-12 for the first five minutes of the half.  “We had Caden back in the game so that helped us,” said Coach Garmen. “We played pretty hard and took better care of the ball.” Breckenridge continued to play suffocating defense and they were able to build a 21-point lead (84-63) with six minutes left in the half and the only question was if the Cowboys would reach 100 points.  Crookston did a good job the rest of the way and Breckenridge shot a three-pointer at the buzzer and missed and won the game 97-78. “If we keep playing like this in the first round of the playoffs I think we could put up a pretty good fight,” said Coach Garmen. “I liked the effort and the kids played hard until the end.  We have to do a better job of taking care of the ball and we did a better job of that in the second half.”
Crookston drops their fifth game in a row and is 8-17 on the year and they will travel to Ada on Friday to play Ada-Borup/Norman County West.  Breckenridge improves to 13-11 on the season.
J.V. – Breckenridge won 66-49    C Squad – Breckenridge won 56-18