The Crookston Pirate Boys Basketball team’s Nick Garmen became the eighth Pirate Boys Basketball player in school history to reach the 1,000 career point mark with a three-pointer late in the first half and the Pirates pulled away for a 65-52 victory over the Wadena-Deer Creek Wolverines in a Section 8AA game played in Wadena.
The game didn’t have the start the Pirates were looking for when WDC scored the first five points of the game. Crookston’s first points were scored by Brady Butt, and Nick Garmen followed with a free throw before Butt took a charge, and Garmen added a three-pointer and Caden Osborn had a steal and a layup for an 8-5 lead. The teams were tied at 10 and 13 before WDC built a 24-18 lead with over eight minutes left in the game. Crookston had the cool hand offensively for the first 10 minutes, but that all changed when Caden Osborn caught fire and went on a 15-3 run by himself. Caden got hot when he made a three-pointer with eight minutes left, and he followed it up with two more threes over a 16-second span. Osborn added a basket and after a WDC three-pointer, he added two more baskets to give Crookston a 33-27 lead with over four minutes left in the half. “I thought the pivotal point of the game was when Caden went to help their big guy up and he wouldn’t take his hand and that made Caden a little upset and he turned around and hit three three-pointers on him,” said Coach Greg Garmen. “That really got us going before the half.” WDC scored a basket to stop the Pirate run, but Crookston’s Nick Garmen started a new run with back-to-back baskets and finished a 7-0 run with a three-pointer with 1:20 left in the half for his 1,000th and 1,001st career point with the assist coming from his younger brother, Jack Garmen. The game was stopped and Nick hugged his dad and coach Greg Garmen and his teammates followed with a team hug and WDC and Pirate fans had 1,000 point signs they held up. (After the game WDC gave Nick the game ball.) “Unfortunately, we were on the road, but Wadena-Deer Creek was willing to let us stop the game for a quick blip about it and somebody had a sign made so that was nice,” said Coach Garmen. “We had some family here with Jack on the team and Matt made it over from Moorhead and brought his cousin and my parents made it up and that was good to see and Nick is the eighth player to score 1,000 in probably 100 years of Pirate basketball and for him to do it and he continues to work on his shot and he has played long enough to get it done.” Nick Garmen said it was nice to reach the milestone. “I couldn’t have done it without the 2015-16 team, the 2016-17, 2017-18, and 2018-19 teammates,” said Nick. “I just go with the flow in the game. When it’s on it’s on and if it isn’t I just try to find other things to do. I didn’t think about it (the milestone) much and just played.” When asked about the hug from his dad, Nick responded, “I don’t get a lot of them at home so I have to take them when I can get them and it was pretty special to get the hugs from my teammates.” After all the excitement, the game resumed and Crookston took a 44-31 lead into halftime.
The first minute or two of the second half was back and forth until Crookston went on a 6-0 run with a Nick Garmen layup and two Osborn baskets for a 55-36 lead with 11 minutes left in the game. Crookston started working the ball around to take time off the clock and cruised the rest of the way for a 65-52 victory. “It is nice to get another win and the boys are excited to eat some pizza,” said Coach Garmen. “The boys played well tonight and I thought Caden had a good game, Kaz (Chris Kazmierczak) played well and had a nice three, Walker Winjum had a nice game for us too. It is nice to get another section win and hopefully, we can get another one next week.”
Crookston improves to 5-7 on the year and will play Barnesville on Tuesday. Wadena-Deer Creek drops to 5-9 on the year.
J.V. – Wadena-Deer Creek won 57-41.
Crookston High School Boys Basketball 1,000 Point scorers
1. Kenley Wahlin – 1438
2. Aaron Hollcraft – 1415
3. Carl Hunt – 1314
4. Steele Senske – 1,092
5. Henry Hulst – 1050
6. Jeremy Voeller – 1033
7. Ryan Porter – 1020
| 1st Half | 2nd Half | Final | |
| CROOKSTON | 44 | 21 | 65 |
| Wadena-Deer Creek | 31 | 21 | 52 |
| For Crookston | Points | Rebounds | Assists/Steals |
| Caden Osborn | 25 | 8 | 3 steals/2 blocks |
| Nick Garmen | 23 | 6 | 6 steals/3 assists |
| Walker Winjum | 6 | 4 | 2 steals/2 assists |
| Brady Butt | 4 | 5 | |
| Chris Kazmierzak | 4 | ||
| Jack Garmen | 3 |
| Wadena-Deer Creek | Points |
| 5stvedt | 11 |
| Zach Shaw | 9 |
| Bereket Loer | 8 |
| Cade Kapphahn | 8 |
| Cooper Folkestad | 4 |
| Aiden Larson | 4 |
| Dawson Lupkes | 3 |
| Lucas Hinojos | 3 |
| Tony Kreklow | 1 |
| Corbett Wenssman | 1 |
