Sacred Heart pulls away to beat Crookston Girls Basketball

The Sacred Heart Eagles used 16 first-half points from Lexi Lawrence, and Kate Bernhoft added 13 points in the second half as they used tremendous defense the entire game to beat the Crookston Pirate Girls Basketball team 61-39 at the Sacred Heart High School gymnasium.

FIRST HALF –
Sacred Heart started the game on an 11-2 run. The run started with a Leah Sundby three-pointer and a Lexi Lawrence basket in the paint. Crookston’s Naomi Johnson scored the first Pirate points of the game before Finley Horken made a free throw, Lawrence and Horken added baskets, and Lydia Riskey made a free throw for an 11-2 lead with 13:31 left in the half. The teams exchanged baskets for several minutes and Sacred Heart led 19-8 after a Lawrence basket with 7:57 remaining. Crookston settled down and got the offense going. Madi Bruggeman started a 9-1 run with a basket. Chloe Boll added a basket and Grace Boll rattled home a three-pointer. After a Sacred Heart free throw, Grace Boll stole the ball and scored to get within a 20-17 deficit. Sacred Heart responded with a Lawrence three-pointer. Crookston’s Chloe Boll responded with a basket before Lawrence added a basket for a 25-19 lead. In the final three minutes of the half, Crookston’s Bruggeman had a free throw followed by a Grace Boll three-pointer to get within a 25-23 deficit. Sacred Heart ended the half with an Izzy Cwikla three-pointer and took a 28-23 lead into halftime.

SECOND HALF –
Sacred Heart set the tone for the rest of the game at the start of the second half as they started on a 15-5 run. Lawrence started the run with a basket, and Horken made a layup for a 32-23 lead. Crookston’s Grace Boll made a three-pointer before Sacred Heart’s Sundby answered with a three-pointer, and Horken added a basket. Crookston’s Brooklyn Waldal had a nice basket inside before the Eagles’ Lawrence, Izzy Cwikla, and Anna Kaiser added baskets for a 43-28 lead with 8:50 left in the game. Crookston’s Waldal stopped the run with three straight points and Chloe Boll added two more points to get within a 43-33 deficit. Sacred Heart’s Kate Bernhoft got the hot hand and made a three-pointer and after a Crookston free throw, she made another three-pointer for a 49-34 lead. Sacred Heart led 53-34 when Bernhoft made a physcial layup before making another three-pointer to give her team a 58-34 lead with 3:25 remaining. There wasn’t much scoring in the final three minutes of the game and Sacred Heart won 61-39.

Crookston drops to 4-6 on the year and will host Hawley on Monday, January 6. Sacred Heart improves to 6-2 on the year.
J.V. – Sacred Heart won 53-21

CLICK ABOVE to listen to Crookston Coach Baril’s comments.

	1st	2nd	Final
Crookston	23	16	39
Sacred Heart	28	33	61

For Crookston	Points	Rebounds	Assists/steals
Grace Boll	13	6	4 steals/2 assists
Chloe Boll	10	10
Brooklyn Waldal	8	2
Joey Nesseth	3	3	3 steals
Madi Bruggeman	3	3	2 steals
Naomi Johnson	2	7