The Crookston Pirate Girls Basketball hung on to beat the Grafton Spoilers 62-58 Thursday night at the Crookston High School gymnasium.
FIRST HALF –
Crookston won the opening tip, and Grace Boll made a three-pointer on the first shot of the game with a 3-0 lead. Grafton answered with four points before Crookston went on a 7-0 run with baskets from Joey Nesseth and Madi Bruggeman and a three-point play from Chloe Boll for a 10-4 lead just shy of four minutes into the game. The teams exchanged baskets, and Crookston led 19-13 when Chloe Boll made three free throws and added a basket for a 24-13 lead with six minutes left in the half. Chloe Boll scored 15 of the first 24 Pirate points. The teams continued to exchange baskets and Crookston took a 32-20 lead into halftime.
SECOND HALF –
The Spoilers came out firing to start the second half, as they opened with a 7-2 run and cut Crookston’s lead down to 7. Crookston started to commit turnovers, which Grafton turned into points. Grafton also was able to take advantage of stretches when Crookston sat a couple of key players due to foul trouble. Crookston maintained their lead, but had trouble building on it midway through the half when both teams got into a scoring drought. Grafton would come out first, as they would outpace Crookston and cut the lead to two possessions with about five minutes left in the game. Grafton’s Kate LeClarc hit a huge three to cut the Pirate lead to 2 with just over 4 minutes to go, but Crookston continued to answer back. Clutch shots from Naomi Johnson, Chloe Boll, and Joey Nesseth helped keep the Pirates in front. With Crookston up by 7 in the final minutes, the Spoilers made a couple of timely shots to hang around, but Grace Boll and Naomi Johnson were able to close out the game from the free throw line.
Crookston is now 3-3 on the year and will travel to Wadena-Deer Creek on Saturday. Grafton drops to 1-2 on the year.
The Pirate JV team lost to Grafton 73-35.
| 1st | 2nd | Final | |
| Grafton | 20 | 38 | 58 |
| Crookston | 32 | 30 | 62 |
| For Crookston | Points | Rebounds | Assists/steals |
| Chloe Boll | 26 | 4 | 3 assists/3 blocks/2 steals |
| Grace Boll | 13 | 8 | 1 steal/1 assist/1 block |
| Joey Nesseth | 10 | 5 | 2 assists/2 blocks/1 steal |
| Madi Bruggeman | 6 | 2 | 1 assits/1 steal/1 block |
| Naomi Johnson | 5 | 4 | 1 steal |
| Brooklyn Waldal | 2 | 3 | 1 assist |
| For Grafton | Points |
| Kate LeClarc | 20 |
| Savannah Blackcloud | 11 |
| Elle Shoemachet | 11 |
| Sydney Suda | 4 |
| Molly Bjorneby | 4 |
| Paige Suda | 4 |
| Paityn Ziegelman | 2 |
