#5 PELICAN RAPIDS USES SECOND HALF RUN TO BEAT PIRATE GIRLS BASKETBALL

The Crookston Pirate Girls Basketball team gave up a 14-1 run halfway through the second half and the #5 ranked Pelican Rapids Vikings pulled away for a 52-42 victory in a game played at the Fargo Civic Center in downtown Fargo, North Dakota.

Crookston trailed 7-3 to start the game before Crookston scored six straight points with baskets from Hayden Winjum, Emma Borowicz and a nice drive by Gretchen Theis to give the Pirates a 9-7 lead with 9:15 left in the first half.  “We were clicking on all cylinders early in the game,” said Pirate Coach Darin Zimmerman. “We had good spacing, we were hitting some shots, we were aggressive, and we played some pretty good defense.”  The offense went into a drought in the final nine minutes of the half as Pelican Rapids ended the half on a 12-3 run to take a 19-12 lead going into halftime. “Defensively we played hard and I thought we played well,” said Coach Zimmerman. “We struggled on the offensive end.  We had some good shots by people we wanted, but we weren’t able to make them.”

Crookston had a fantastic start to the second half with back-to-back three-pointers from Borowicz and Dani Boyle to get within a one-point deficit and later tied the game at 24 with a Borowicz free throw. “We came out strong in the second half and really shot well and when we can get Dani making three’s that adds another dimension to our offense,” said Coach Zimmerman. The teams were tied at 27 with 12:16 left in the game when the Pirate offense went into another drought and Pelican Rapids went on a 16-1 run over a six-minute span and built a 43-29 lead with over four minutes left in the game. “We struggled on that run and some of it had to do with the defense that Pelican Rapids was playing,” said Coach Zimmerman. “We had a bunch of turnovers and we missed some open shots and it just snowballed on us.”  A little over a minute later, Pelican Rapids’ Kaylie Isaman made a three-pointer for the 1,000th point of her career and they had a 46-31 lead, the biggest of the game.  Crookston battled back with back-to-back three-point plays from Borowicz and Theis to get the deficit down to nine points (46-37), but Pelican Rapids made their free throws in the final minutes for a 52-42 victory.

Crookston drops their fifth game in a row and are 11-8 on the year and will host #2 ranked (in Class AA) Roseau on Tuesday.  Pelican Rapids improves to 17-1 on the year.