The Hawley Nuggets held off a Crookston rally and made their free throws to pull away for a 62-46 victory in a Section 8AA matchup in Hawley.
FIRST HALF –
Hawley opened the game with a three-pointer from Kaylie Crabtree, and Crookston responded with a Halle Winjum offensive rebound and putback while getting fouled. Halle made the free throw to tie the game at 3-3. Crookston took the lead 5-3 after a Hayden Winjum. Hawley answered with seven straight points to take a 10-5 lead with under 12 minutes left in the half. Crookston slowly chipped away at the deficit and got within a 14-12 deficit after a Kasey Cwikla three-pointer. “That got us going a little bit,” said Pirate Coach Darin Zimmerman. “Hawley answered and slowly built a 25-15 lead with five minutes left in the half before Crookston caught fire with back-to-back three-pointers from Abby Borowicz and Halle Winjum. Hawley stopped the Pirate run with a basket, only to have the Pirates answer with a Dani Boyle three-pointer to get within a 27-24 deficit. “Three-point shooting, for the most part, has been a strength for us this year,” said Coach Zimmerman. “It got us back into the game.” Crookston didn’t score in the final two minutes of the half, and Hawley had two baskets, and the Nuggets took a 31-24 lead into halftime. “It was one of those things where we didn’t feel like we played great,” said Coach Zimmerman. “We were certainly right there, but we needed to make some adjustments.”
SECOND HALF –
Hawley led 38-28 four minutes into the half before Crookston went on a 12-4 run. The run was fueled by a nice move in the paint from Cwikla, a Boyle three-pointer which was followed by a nice layup as Dani split two-defenders to bring the Pirates within a three-point deficit. Hawley scored four straight points, only to have Crookston respond with a Halle Winjum basket and another Boyle three-pointer to bring the Pirates within a 42-40 deficit halfway through the half. Hawley, as they did all game, had an answer to the Pirate run with a 13-3 run to take a 55-43 lead with less than two minutes to go in the game. Hawley made their free throws in the final minutes and won 62-46. “We lacked consistency tonight. We did some nice things and it came down to we didn’t convert on our opportunities tonight,” said Coach Zimmerman. “The girls played hard and played a lot of minutes.
Crookston drops to 18-5 on the year and will travel to Barnesville on Thursday. Hawley improves to 17-5 on the season and pretty much has the #1 seed locked up in the Section 8AA-West subsection.
| 1st | 2nd | Final | |
| CROOKSTON | 24 | 22 | 46 |
| Hawley | 31 | 31 | 62 |
| For Crookston | Points | Rebound | Steals/Assists |
| Halle Winjum | 15 | 4 | 3 steals/2 assists |
| Dani Boyle | 11 | 3 steals | |
| Kasey Cwikla | 10 | 5 | |
| Hayden Winjum | 5 | 4 | 3 steals/3 assists |
| Abby Borowicz | 5 |
| For Hawley | Points |
| Paige Thompson | 20 |
| Kaylie Crabtree | 15 |
| Anna Steer | 11 |
| Kylie Crabtree | 11 |
| Alex Eilertson | 3 |
| Abigail Rux | 2 |
