PIRATE BOYS BASKETBALL STRUGGLES AGAINST FERTILE-BELTRAMI’S DEFENSE IN LOSS

The Fertile-Beltrami Falcons scored the final eight points of the game and played tough defense the entire game to beat the Crookston Pirate Boys Basketball team 59-48 in a game played at the Crookston High School gymnasium.

Fertile-Beltrami had a great start to the game when they scored the first eight points with Dylan Pearce scoring six and Andrew Wadsworth added a basket for an 8-0 lead over two minutes into the game.  “We have to have a better start,” said Pirate Coach Greg Garmen. “I thought we were flat coming out of the gates and handle the ball better.”   Crookston’s Nick Garmen scored the first Pirate points of the game to spark a 6-2 run with Jaden Lubarski and Caden Osborn scoring two points each to get within a 10-6 deficit.  Fertile-Beltrami answered with four straight points, two apiece from Wadsworth and Nolan Pinske for a 14-6 lead and a short time later, the Falcon’s Pearce picked up his second foul and had to sit for the final 12:22 of the half.  Crookston wasn’t able to take advantage of the absence of Pearce and actually, Fertile-Beltrami built a 20-9 lead halfway through the first half.  Crookston started making some shots with Jaden Lubarski scoring off an offensive rebound and they added three-pointers from Osborn and Walker Winjum made a three-pointer as the halftime buzzer sounded and Fertile-Beltrami’s lead was 27-22 at halftime.  “That helped to have something positive going into halftime,” said Pirate Coach Greg Garmen.

Crookston came out strong in the second half as Nick Garmen made a three-pointer and after a Falcon basket, Winjum made another three to spark an 18-6 Pirate run in the first four minutes of the second half. “I think Crookston shot 100 percent on six trips down the floor there,” said Falcon Coach Steffes. “They made a bunch of threes and took the lead.” Crookston had a 43-37 lead with 12:30 left in the game when Fertile-Beltrami picked up their defense and found their posts (Pearce and Pinske) and went on a 14-0 run with six different players scoring for a 51-43 lead. “Our inside guys have been good for us and we were able to get it into them.” Crookston stopped the almost six-minute scoring drought with an Osborn basket and a Lubarski three-point play to get back within a three-point deficit (51-48) with 3:20 left in the game.  Crookston didn’t score the rest of the game and Fertile-Beltrami made their free throws, including Wadsworth making all six of his shots and the Falcons held on for a 59-48 victory.  “We need all five guys on the floor clicking and we haven’t had that yet,” said Pirate Coach Garmen. “I felt we had a good shot and we couldn’t score at the end.”  Fertile-Beltrami Coach Steffes said he was happy with his team’s effort, “We missed a lot of easy shots and layups again tonight otherwise we could have probably won going away.  We rebounded the ball well, we played pretty good defense and it was a nice win for us tonight.”
Crookston falls to 3-7 on the year and will host Park Rapids on Tuesday.  Fertile-Beltrami improves to 8-4 on the year.
J.V. – Fertile-Beltrami won 56-45      C Squad – Fertile-Beltrami won 63-39