The Crookston Pirates started the game with a 19-0 lead and started the second half by scoring the first 13 points and they cruised to a 54-18 win over the Park Rapids Panthers in a Section 8AA Girl’s Basketball game in Park Rapids.
First Half
Sometimes you just don’t know how student-athletes are going to react to different situations. Like tonight, the Crookston at Park Rapids girls basketball game started near a half-hour late!! How did it affect the visiting Pirates? Crookston started out with a 19-0 lead before the Panthers Abby Morris hit a three-pointer with 6:52 left in the first half. Not surprisingly the Pirate defense was stalwart in the first half, but even with the 27-3 Pirate lead, Park Rapids was scrappy defensively and made Crookston work for most of their baskets. “Park Rapids is physical at home and I’m sure they were excited to play their first home game,” said Crookston head coach Darin Zimmerman, “so we were happy to get that cushion and we did some good defensive things too. About the only thing was offensively we might have been rushing some possessions, but we were playing extremely hard and I was happy with that.” Halle Winjum continued her strong play on both ends of the court, sharpshooting with 11 points and picking the pockets of the Panthers with four steals to lead the Pirates to a 34-7 lead at half-time. “We settled in the second part of the first half,” said Zimmerman. “As our offense started looking for the outside shot as Park Rapids was pretty aggressive and tough in the paint. I thought Ally Perreault gave us a spark and was all over the place along with Emma Boll in the first half on both ends of the court.”
Second Half
The second half started with Emma Boll scoring a couple of baskets with one coming off a nice drive and assist from Halle Winjum. The Winjum sisters combined for another basket with Halle getting her sixth assist of the game dishing to her older sister, Hayden, and they were up 40-7. There was no stopping Halle Winjum as she picked up fifth steal of the game and going in for a basket. Right after Halle Winjum had another steal, she scored and was fouled and made the free throw to give the Pirates a 45-7 lead. With 11 minutes left in the game. Emma Osborn laid in her seventh point of the game and the Pirates were up 47-7. “We’re playing good basketball right now,” said Zimmerman. “I like what I see out of our offense. Every game we are improving which is a good sign.” Park Rapids called another time out trying to figure out how to defend the Crookston team better and how to get some offensive punch against the Pirate defense as well. Park Rapids did not score a point until 9:07 left in the game when Mady Maninga made a shot to make it a 47-9 Crookston lead and the Panthers Tori Weaver scored the last five points of the game, but Crookston went on to claim an easy 54-18 win playing the entire varsity roster. Halle Winjum led the Pirates with quite the stat line, 18 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists and 7 steals!!! “She’s tough,” said Zimmerman about Halle. “She plays the game the right way and we’re glad she’s on our team and not somebody else’s.”
Crookston improves to 3-1 on the season and 2-1 in Section 8AA play. “It was a great team win and great team effort,” added Zimmerman. The Pirates are off until Tuesday when they host Roseau. Â Park Rapids is now 0-2 and 0-2 in Section 8AA and are also off until Tuesday when they will host Detroit Lakes.
JV –Â Park Rapids won 44-37Â Â Â Â C-Squad-Park Rapids won 38-17.
|  | 1st | 2nd | Final |
| CROOKSTON | 34 | 20 | 54 |
| Park Rapids | 7 | 11 | 18 |
| For Crookston | Points | Rebounds | Steals/Assists |
| Halle Winjum | 18 | 4 | 6 steals/7 assists |
| Emma Boll | 8 | Â | |
| Emma Borowicz | 8 | 5 | |
| Emma Osborn | 7 | 3 | |
| Hayden Winjum | 4 | 3 | 2 assists |
| Ally Perreault | 3 | ||
| Abby Borowicz | 2 | 4 | 3 steals |
| Jenna Coauette | 2 | ||
| Amelia Overgaard | 2 |
| For Park Rapids | Points |
| Tori Weaver | 5 |
| Mickey Clark | 4 |
| Mady Maninga | 4 |
| Abby Morris | 3 |
| Hannah Morgan | 2 |
