CROOKSTON BOYS BASKETBALL WINS LAST-SECOND THRILLER OVER BAGLEY

Jaden Lubarski made one free-throw with under one-second to play securing a 48-47 win for Crookston Pirates Boys’ basketball team over the Bagley Flyers in a Section 8AA game played in Bagley.
Nick Garmen knocked down a three-pointer for the game’s first points giving the Pirates a 3-0 lead. Caden Osborn scored inside growing the Pirates lead to 5-0 before Alec Norum scored a three-pointer for the Flyers, cutting the deficit to 5-3. Jaden Lubarski scored for Crookston to give the Pirates a 7-3 lead. Bagley answered with four-straight points tying the game at 7-7. Nick Garmen answered with his second three-pointer regaining the lead for Crookston. Leading 10-9, Caden Osborn scored six-straight points for the Pirates, pushing Crookston’s lead to 16-9. Caden Osborn answered a Bagley basket with another score giving the visitors an 18-11 lead. The Flyers’ Garrett Riewer closed the low-scoring first half with a three-pointer, but the Pirates took an 18-14 lead into halftime. “Kids just couldn’t hit shots,” said Crookston head coach Greg Garmen of the low-scoring first half. “Nick (Garmen) hit a couple right away and we got Caden (Osborn) going, but it was a battle after that and it really was the same for Bagley. It was just sort of a tough night to shoot and for whatever reason kids haven’t really found their rhythm yet. Hopefully, we can find that rhythm that we need to find to shoot the ball like we should.”
Early in the second half, Jaden Lubarski scored pushing Crookston’s lead to 23-17. Bagley responded with back-to-back three-pointers made by James Hvezda and Alec Norum tying the game at 23-23. Walker Winjum countered with a basket for the Pirates sparking an 8-0 run with a three-pointer made by Josh Bernia and a Jaden Lubarski jumper giving the Pirates a 31-23 lead. The Flyers scored six-straight points to cut the deficit to 31-29 before Nick Garmen scored to push Crookston’s lead to 33-29. Following an Easton Tangquist three-pointer that gave Crookston a 40-35 lead, Bagley’s Kenly Gordon made a three-pointer before Kolton Schultz tied the game at 40-40 with a basket. Alec Norum continued the Flyers’ 7-0 run with a basket giving Bagley a 42-40 lead. “They hit some shots and got hot in the second half and we didn’t defend maybe like we needed to,” said Garmen. “They got away from us too much.” Caden Osborn answered for the Pirates with a field goal tying the game at 42-42. A pair of Bagley free-throws made by James Hvezda regained the lead for the Flyers, but Caden Osborn made two free-throws tying the game followed by a Walker Winjum basket to give Crookston a 46-44 lead. Alec Norum knocked down a three-pointer for Bagley to regain a 47-46 lead for the hosts. A foul sent Nick Garmen to the line where he made one of two free throws tying the game at 47-47. Crookston intentionally fouled in the final seconds of the game thinking they had fouls to give, but the official scorebook determined that the Pirates’ Walker Winjum had committed the team’s seventh foul sending James Hvezda to the free-throw line with a chance to take the lead. Hvezda missed the front end of the one-and-one allowing Crookston a chance to win the game with the final shot. Following a miss, Jaden Lubarski was fouled as he got the offensive rebound and went to the -throw line where he made the first free-throw giving Crookston a 48-47 lead with 0.6 seconds remaining. Lubarski intentionally missed the second free-throw and Bagley full-court heave was off the mark as Crookston picked up its first win of the season 48-47. “It see-sawed back and forth in the final few minutes,” explained Garmen. “It appeared that they were going to hold for one shot and we’re in a timeout and I said, ‘we can give up one foul and still be in the bonus,’ they were sort of fumbling the ball around and we fouled a guy. They came over to the scorer’s table and determined it was our seventh foul, but they had five on the board. So we had a big to do about that because we wouldn’t have fouled then. So anyways we have to go with the official book even though our stat people had it as our sixth foul only. They go to the line and shoot and they miss. We come down, I can’t even remember who shot, but there’s a scrum underneath the rim and Jaden Lubarski gets fouled coming up with the rebound. So he goes to the line with 0.6 seconds and he makes the first one so they call a timeout. I was thinking we should maybe have him miss so I sort of said it, but I didn’t really know if I wanted to do it. But he went up to the line and missed it and they heave it down. Game over, we win by one.”
Despite Crookston picking up its first win of the season, Garmen is still looking to see more out of his team going forward. “We really struggled in all facets of the game, but none the less, they hung in there, made plays when they needed to like in the last, one-second of the game, we made a play there and we needed that at that time,” said Coach Garmen.  “We did it, so that was good.”
The Pirates improve to 1-1 on the year and return to the court on Friday when Crookston hosts Warroad at 7:30 p.m. on KROX. Bagley improves to 2-0.