Spurred by a 25-0 run spanning both halves and 19 second-half points from Carter Bruggeman, the Crookston Pirates Boys Basketball team picked up its first win 68-39 over the Climax-Fisher Knights on Parents Night in a game played at the Crookston High School Gymnasium. It was Pirates Coach Greg Garmen’s 400th career win with the Pirates.
1st Half
The Pirates scored the first point of the night on a free throw by Easton Tangquist and the Pirates opened on a 9-0 run over the first 3:48 seconds capped by a Jacob Miller three from the left corner. The Knights would respond with a 7-2 rapped by a pair of free throws from Ethan Evitts to pull within four at 11-7 with 11:05 to play in the half. The two teams would trade baskets over the next four minutes before Dylan Evitts scored and drew a foul on a fast break hitting his free throw for a three-point play to make it 18-14 Pirates with 6:54 to play. That would be the last field goal by the Knights until midway through the second half. The Pirates closed the half on a 9-0 run to lead 27-14 at the break. Crookston hit just seven first-half field goals and went 10-18 at the free-throw line. “The first half kind of seesawed back and forth feeling our way through it,” said Pirates Coach Greg Garmen. “We hit some shots at the end to have a little lead heading into halftime. It didn’t feel like we shot well at the line, but we must have shot a lot of them. We probably took too many threes early. We needed to go inside more, and we jacking up threes like they were going out of style.”
2nd Half
The Pirates continued their scoring run coming out of the locker room as Carter Bruggeman drove down the right side of the lane to open the second half scoring with a layup off 18 seconds into the half. The Pirates went on to score the first 16 points of the half led by six from Jack Garmen and four from Bruggeman while Brooks Butt and Tangquist each added three to take a 43-14 lead with 14:16 to play. “It helps to have a run like that anytime in a game,” said Garmen. “We haven’t been very good on offense our first two games, so that was good to get the kinks out and get things going. Carter started dribble-driving it, getting inside to extend it and put it out of reach. We were a little more active, hands were active.” With 13:46 to play, Jory Vasek drew a shooting foul and hit both free throws to break a scoreless streak 11:08. With 10:58 to go, Aiden Rogenes would kiss a turnaround shot in the lane off the glass to cut the Pirate lead to 29 at 49-18. Rogenes, shot was the first field goal by the Knights since there was 6:54 to go in the first half, a span of 13:56. The two teams would trade baskets over the next five minutes, with the Knights never pulling closer than 28 before a Bruggeman three from the top of the key gave the Pirates a 67-32 lead with 6:00 to play. “We had more active hands in the second half,” said Garmen. “We were getting on the floor, getting to loose balls. Evan Christensen coming in late, getting on the floor for a loose ball is good to see even though it’s under a minute and the game is out of reach. Good for other kids to see that you get on the floor good things happen. He got sat on and got to go to the line with a chance to score a couple of points.” Evan Christensen would cap the scoring for the Pirates as he was fouled and went 1-for-2 at the free-throw line with 11 seconds to play, giving the Pirates the 68-39 win. Bruggeman finished the game with 21 points, 19 of which came in the second half. “He’s really gotten better at shooting the ball,” said Garmen. “He’s a big, strong kid. When he takes it in low, if he can get the ball organized and not get it taken away, he’s tough around the basket.”
The Pirates improve to 1-2 on the year and will travel to Thief River Falls on Tuesday, January 26. Climax-Fisher falls to 0-3 and travels to Bagley on Friday night.
| 1st | 2nd | Final | |
| Climax-Fisher | 14 | 15 | 29 |
| CROOKSTON | 27 | 41 | 68 |
| For Crookston | Points | Rebounds | Steals/Assists |
| Carter Bruggeman | 21 | 4 steals | |
| Jack Garmen | 14 | 4 | 3 assists |
| Easton Tangquist | 10 | 4 | 2/4 |
| Jacob Miller | 7 | 6/4 | |
| Brooks Butt | 7 | 7 | 2/2 |
| Jacob Hesby | 5 | 4 | 2 |
| Tristan Luckow | 3 | 4 | 3 steals |
| Evan Christensen | 1 | ||
| Ryan Abeld | 0 | 2 | |
| Karsten Isaacson | 0 | 6 |
| For Climax-Fisher | Points |
| Dylan Evitts | 18 |
| Aiden Rogenes | 8 |
| Jory Vasek | 6 |
| Carter Helgeson | 3 |
| Zach Helgeson | 2 |
| Ethan Evitts | 2 |
