CROOKSTON GIRLS BASKETBALL STIFLES EGF IN ROUTE TO SECTION 8AA CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

The Crookston Pirate Girl’s Basketball team used a 36-minute defensive onslaught to upend East Grand Forks 47-35 in the Section 8AA Tournament semifinal played in front of a huge crowd at Lysaker Gymnasium in Crookston. 

Crookston got off to a fast start with Emma Borowicz knocking down a three-pointer to open the game’s scoring. Rachel Hefta made a free-throw giving the Pirates a 4-0 lead. Hayden Winjum took a pass from Hefta and finished at the rim pushing Crookston’s lead to 6-0 with 16:26 to play in the first half. Kylie Solheim added another free-throw to close out the Pirates’ 7-0 run to open the game. “That’s what we want, we want multiple players to be able to step up and play,” said Crookston head coach Darin Zimmerman. “We couldn’t have asked really for a better start. I thought defensively we were very good and obviously when you come out and you make some shots that kind of settles the nerves right away and that kind of set the tone for us.” Breanna Olson made a free-throw giving East Grand Forks its first point of the game with 13:16 to play in the first half trimming the Green Wave’s deficit down to 7-1. McKenna Aitchison added a lay-up for EGF pulling East Side within 7-3. Gretchen Theis responded with a Crookston three-pointer giving the Pirates a 10-3 lead. Danielle Boyle followed with another Crookton triple pushing the Pirates advantage up to 13-5. Following a pair of Haley Burger free-throws, Emma Borowicz connected on a three-pointer giving Crookston a 16-7 lead. After a Haley Burger lay-up, Kylie Solheim buried a deep shot allowing the Pirates’ lead to grow to 19-9 with 10:33 to play in the first half. After a Green Wave 3-0 run, Crookston’s Emma Borowicz scored inside with a Gretchen Theis free-throw extending the Pirates’ lead to 22-12 with 5:56 to play in the first half. Breanna Olson made a three-pointer for East Grand Forks bringing the Green Wave within 22-15 before Kasey Cwikla made a lay-up set up by an assist from Halle Winjum. Leading 27-20 with 1:54 to play in the first half, Kylie Solheim made a three-pointer giving the Pirates a 30-20 lead. Kadynn Melquist closed out the first half scoring connecting on a three-point shot trimming East Grand Forks’ deficit down to 30-23 at halftime. “I think (coming out aggressively) has been one of the big differences in the last month,” said Zimmerman. “We’ve always been playing well, but just letting the game come to us. Now we’re attacking it and just trying to cease it. It was sort of back-and-forth after that start and if you can never give up runs, especially with the way we’re playing defense that’s what we want. It was a good half for us. We were dictating the game more than we had in those first two meetings.”  

Rachel Hefta opened the second half scoring with a jump shot from the lane pushing Crookston’s lead to 32-23 with 15:45 to play. Following a Kadynn Melquist three-pointer, Hayden Winjum scored a lay-up for the Pirates to take a 34-26 lead. Rachel Hefta scored inside 20-seconds later allowing Crookston’s lead to grow to 36-26 with 14:03 to play. Breanna Olson stopped a nearly four-minute scoring drought for the Green Wave trimming EGF’s deficit down to 36-27 before Haley Burger finished a lay-up through a foul adding her free-throw to bring East Grand Forks within 36-30 with 11:33 to play. Kasey Cwikla made a lay-up giving the Pirates a 38-30 lead with 10:28 remaining. Both sides went scoreless for nearly five minutes before Kasey Cwikla scored back-to-back lay-ups over a 22-second span pushing Crookston’s advantage to 42-30. “(Cwikla) came up big,” said Zimmerman. “She had another great game for us. I thought she played exceptional on Saturday. The nice thing about Kasey is that she can just do so much.”  Emma Borowicz made three-straight free-throws to help ice the game giving the Pirates a 45-30 advantage. A Macy Skyberg jump shot brought East Grand Forks back within 45-32 with 1:07 to play, ending an 11-minute scoring drought for the Green Wave.  Kasey Cwikla made two free-throws in the closing seconds to close out the 47-35 win sending Crookston to the Section 8AA championship game. “I liked where we were going into the postseason,” explained Zimmerman. “Even in January when we weren’t necessarily winning the games we wanted to win we were right there.  I was happy with the direction we were going. Certainly, in February, I thought we were playing really good basketball. I didn’t even spend much time looking at seeding. Our mindset was the seed didn’t matter, we just had to keep playing good basketball and it would sort of take care of itself.”

Crookston improves to 18-10 on the season and advances to the Section 8AA Championship on Friday that will take place at Lysaker Gymnasium at 7 p.m. with the Riverview Health Pregame show beginning at 6:20 p.m. on KROX.  East Grand Forks’ season comes to an end with a 20-8 record. 

LISTEN TO THE KROX BROADCAST OF THE GAME – CLICK HERE

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