WIN-E-MAC ENDS EACH HALF WITH STRONG FINISHES TO DEFEAT CROOKSTON 77-61

The Win-E-Mac Patriots Boy’s Basketball team came into the game at Crookston tonight with a 12-11 record.  They have lost twice to Fertile-Beltrami, twice to Fosston, and once to Red Lake County, Warren-Alvarado-Oslo, and Sacred Heart to name a few, five teams that have been ranked in the top 10 in Class A at one time or another this season! The Patriots showed they can play basketball tonight with a young athletic team that had major runs to end the first half and at the end of the game to defeat the Pirates 77-61 at Crookston High School.

First Half
The teams traded baskets to start the game, and then Win-E-Mac went on an 11-0 run to take an early 13-2 lead three and a half minutes into the game. Crookston would slowly chip away at the lead, with Hunter Nicholas giving Crookston a boost with his inside play with baskets and rebounds. Jack Everett hit a two-point shot, just inside the three-point line, with just over six minutes to go in the half that tied the game at 21-21. “It was tough to fall behind so early,” said Crookston head coach Greg Garmen, “you have to keep battling to get back into the game. We started hitting some shots with Reggie (Winjum) and Abeld. Hunter was tough inside and Tanner (Giese) made some free throws to get us back to even.” At this point, Justin Courneya took over for the rest of the half, scoring five in a row for a five-point lead and they scored the last six points of the half and ended the half on a 14-6 run and led 35-27. “We had them in a little foul trouble in the first half with their two bigs having three fouls apiece, but couldn’t take advantage of it in the second half,” said Garmen, “They had eight seconds left of the half, and we told the team at the timeout don’t let your man get behind you and score! One of our guys gapped it out and let his man behind him to score to give them the eight-point lead at half-time. I told them at half-time we can’t have the lapses. At the end of the day, you have to make plays, we shoot ourselves in the foot.”

Second Half
Both teams came out and scored six points each in the first three minutes before the Patriots went on another run after the Pirates turned the ball over three consecutive times downcourt. “We took one time out early and out of our locker room. We’ve written POGO back to the Ed Nelson days, the good old comic strip, and basically, it was we’ve met the enemy, and it’s us!! Starting the half, we proved that with turnovers, one time Jack Everett threw a pass to me, and I don’t have any eligibility left, and we threw one out of bounds on a pass up ahead a couple of times, and those really hurt because you’re right in the balance of still making a comeback or not.” Justin Courneya went off for a quick seven points, Braylon Hamre and Jonas Spry both hit two threes, and the Patriots padded their lead to 51-37 after eighth grader Joe Courneya drilled a three and the Patriots led 51-37 with eight minutes left in the game. Crookston would cut it to nine, 58-49, but was unable to get any stops, and Win-E-Mac won, going away 77-61. “I thought Winjum and Abeld did a pretty good job on the older Courneya for the most part, Hunter is still a work in progress yet, has to get a little better footwork to make his moves inside a little easier instead of shooting off the wrong foot. He’s always at the gym, and he’ll figure it out. All our kids have to shoot more and hopefully they’ll do that whether in the gym or other places particularly in the summer at outside baskets.”

Crookston falls to 7-15 and will host Roseau on Thursday with a 7:00 PM start on Seniors Night. Crookston beat Roseau earlier this season up at Roseau, 74-63 on a night that Nicholas ran into foul problems. “That was a good Section win at the end of December over Roseau,” said Garmen, “they will be coming down here looking to even the score, but we win Thursday, that will help us to keep ahead of Roseau in the standings.” Crookston has three games left of the regular season.

Win-E-Mac improves to 13-11 on the season and is at the Northern Freeze on Thursday, and wraps up their regular season on Monday at Red Lake Falls.
JV – Win-E-Mac won 78-77
C-Squad – Win-E-Mac won 40-30

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