The Hawley Nuggets used offensive rebounds and outstanding free throw shooting to beat the Crookston Pirate Girls Basketball team 59-54 in a game played in the Fergus Falls Holiday Classic. “That was the story of a lot of the game,” said Crookston Pirate Coach Darin Zimmerman. “Hawley made most of their free throws and were more active on the rebounding than we were. We had too many mistakes in the game today.” The Pirate loss was the second loss in a row against a section opponent.
FIRST HALF –
Hawley had the hot hand early while making their first three three-point attempts to lead 9-5 over three minutes into the game. Kylie Crabtree made two of the three-pointers while Paige Thompson made one. Hawley took their biggest lead of the game after a Kylie Crabtree basket for an 11-6 lead. “They came out and shot the ball very well at the beginning of the game,” said Coach Zimmerman. “We weren’t playing bad, they just shot the ball well.” Crookston trailed 16-12 with six minutes left in the half when they started to pick up their defensive pressure and that led to a 5-0 run with a Hayden Winjum free throw, an Emma Borowicz layup and a Hayden Winjum steal and layup for a 17-16 lead, the first of the game for Crookston. Hawley answered with a Paige Thompson basket before Crookston went on a 5-0 run with two Gretchen Theis free throws and an Emma Borowicz three-pointer for a 22-18 lead with 2:30 left in the half. “I thought that was our best stretch of the game,” said Coach Zimmerman. “We got some steals, some run-outs and we had a little extra bounce in our step.” The teams exchanged baskets the rest of the half and Hawley took a 26-24 lead into halftime. “We played a pretty good first half,” said Coach Zimmerman. “Both teams played good defense and they made a play or two more than we did.”
SECOND HALF –
Crookston started the second half slow and Hawley went on a 6-2 run to take a 32-26 lead. “We didn’t have a good start to the second half,” said Coach Zimmerman. “It was a flashback to the Roseau game.” The Pirate picked up their play trailing after they trailed 40-33, halfway through the second half, by going on an 11-5 run with five points from Thies, four points from Hayden Winjum and a basket from Halle Winjum and Crookston trailed 45-44 with six minutes left in the game. Hawley went on another mini-run and led 52-46 only to have Crookston battle back with a Theis basket and Halle Winjum had a steal and nice pass to her sister Hayden for a layup and Kasey Cwikla added a basket in the paint to tie the game at 52-52 with 1:36 remaining. Hawley scored three straight points before Theis had a nice runner through the lane to get within a 55-54 deficit with 16 seconds left. Hawley made four straight free throws to solidify the 59-54 victory. “We kept battling the entire half and played our type of game,” said Coach Zimmerman. “We weren’t able to get over the hump and they beat us with all their offensive rebounds. We struggled boxing them out and give credit to Hawley, they are active and aggressive. Overall it was a good game.”
Crookston drops to 6-2 on the year and will either play Coon Rapids at 12:15 p.m. or Fergus Falls at 3:45 p.m. Hawley improves to 6-1 on the year.
J.V. – Crookston won 35-27
| 1st | 2nd | Final | |
| CROOKSTON | 24 | 30 | 54 |
| Hawley | 26 | 33 | 59 |
| For Crookston | Points | Rebound | Steals/Assists |
| Emma Borowicz | 16 | 4 | 5 steals/3 assists |
| Hayden Winjum | 13 | 3 | 3 steals/2 assists |
| Gretchen Theis | 11 | ||
| Dani Boyle | 7 | 2 steals | |
| Kasey Cwikla | 4 | 3 | |
| Halle Winjum | 3 | 2 steals/2 assists |
| For Hawley | Points |
| Paige Thompson | 20 |
| Kylie Crabtree | 14 |
| Kaylie Crabtree | 7 |
| Abigail Rux | 7 |
| Anna Steer | 5 |
| Grace Fleming | 4 |
| Morgan Ames | 2 |
