The Lake Park-Audubon Raiders came into Crookston with three wins in their last four games and a record of 5-9 after winning a thrilling 56-55 win over Norman County East/Ulen-Hitterdal on Saturday. The Crookston Pirates came in with an 0-11 record after losing last night at Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton 73-45.
The Pirates had no answer as the Raiders built up a lead as big as 42 points in the second half, but Crookston did rally the last four and a half minutes with a 12-0 run to end the game with Lake Park-Audubon winning again 69-53 in a Boys’ Basketball game in Crookston.
FIRST HALF –
Saturday night in Lake Park-Audubon’s one-point win over Norman County East/Ulen-Hitterdal, the Raiders’ 6’2 senior guard, Luca Beske, scored the last 16 points of the game to lead them to victory. “Luca just took over the game and carried us to the victory,” said fifth year coach Landon Schultz. “He’s been a tremendous player for us over the years and is a great leader.”
Tonight Beske had 16 points in the first half, making three treys with several assists and the Raiders rolled up a 27-10 lead with just over seven minutes to go in the first half. The Raiders were noted as a very good shooting team, a strong and good rebounding team. That all showed up early as they made five long ones, six for eight at the free throw line. The Raiders were led by Beske, Brody Hanson, and others in rebounding and they played a stalwart defense that had the Pirates struggling with committing turnovers and some easily uncontested layups and had a 40-21 lead at halftime.
SECOND HALF –
Lake Park-Audubon was a carbon copy of how they started the game and started the second half. In the first seven minutes of the second stanza, the Raiders outscored the Pirates 19-4 and opened their biggest lead of the game at 59-25. In another seven minutes, the Pirates started putting some things together going against some of the reserves. “I left our starters in when they started substituting,” said Crookston head coach Bruce Erdmann. “I mean they really worked hard and looked good, I told them after the game, that is how we want them to play against the starters!” Reggie Winjum, the senior guard and leading scorer for the Pirates, had eight first half points and was frustrated with some of the calls that went against him and his teammates. Reggie talked to the officials, and one went to the Pirate bench and told coach Erdmann that he was not going to listen anymore, and it was a warning. After sitting for a couple minutes on the bench, when the 6’3 senior guard came back he had something to prove and he went crazy, on the court kind of crazy. He had three treys with a couple other baskets and seemingly was the only Crookston player scoring any baskets and for the last four and a half minutes, Crookston scored the last 12 points of the game to show some semblance of what this team can do if they can put a full game together. It’s been frustrating for the players and coaches, but they’ll be up at it tomorrow morning for practice and work on several things, watch film and get ready for their next game.
Crookston, 0-12 on the season, will host Barnesville on Friday night at Crookston High School. Barnesville is a Section 8AA opponent that is 6-7 on the season and will play Thief River Falls at home on Thursday and in Crookston the following night. The boy’s and girls will play a doubleheader with Barnesville and Crookston girl’s playing at 6:00 PM and the boy’s playing after about 7:30 PM.
JV – Lake Park-Audubon won 69-35
C-Squad- Lake Park-Audubon won 48-38
| 1st | 2nd | Final | |
| LPA | 40 | 29 | 69 |
| Crookston | 21 | 32 | 53 |
| For Crookston | Points | Rebounds | Misc. |
| Reggie Winjum | 24 | 6 | 3 assists/3steals |
| Carter Fee | 11 | 7 | 3 assists-/2 steals |
| Beau Smith | 10 | 3 | 2assists |
| Nolan Johnson | 5 | 3 | 2 assists |
| Nolan Cassavant | 2 | 3 | |
| Gunnar Groven | 1 | 3 | 2 assists |
| For LPA | Points |
| Luca Beske | 20 |
| Mac Voth | 13 |
| Brody Hanson | 12 |
| Leif Shervey | 8 |
| Tydan Eiter | 7 |
| Troy Nerdahl | 7 |
| Jackson Kastel | 2 |
