#7 PELICAN RAPIDS QUICK START TOO MUCH FOR PIRATE GIRLS BASKETBALL

The Pelican Rapids Vikings came out and scored the first six points of the game and set the tone with their physical play early in the game to beat the Crookston Pirate Girls Basketball team 32-27 in a Section 8AA matchup played at Moorhead High School.   Crookston was without two of their starters with Emma Borowicz missing the game due to injury and Gretchen Theis missing the game because of illness.

FIRST HALF –
Pelican Rapids started the game with some fire and scored the first six points of the game in less than two minutes. Crookston settled in on the defensive end after Pirate Coach Darin Zimmerman called a time out three a minute later.  “Pelican Rapids is a physical team and we called that time out just to get the girls to settle down,” said Coach Zimmerman. “It is one thing to talk about their physical play and another thing to see it and we were playing passive early on.” The Pirates scored their first point of the game when Abby Borowicz made one of her two free-throw attempts with 14:18 left in the half. A little over two minutes later, Crookston added two more points on an Emma Boll basket to cut the deficit to 6-3. Crookston would only score one more point in the final 12 minutes of the half and luckily they played some outstanding defense to keep them and the game and Pelican Rapids took an 11-4 lead into halftime.  “We played great defense and did a good job rebounding,” said Coach Zimmerman. “We struggled offensively in the first half and didn’t go up strong.  We needed to be a little more physical.  Our defense kept us in the game.”

SECOND HALF –
Crookston started the scoring in the second half when Hayden Winjum made a free throw, but Pelican Rapids answered with back-to-back baskets from Chloe Paulson and Greta Tollefson for a 15-5 lead. Crookston answered with a Hayden Winjum basket and a minute later she added two free throws and Crookston trailed 15-9 over four minutes into the half.  “Hayden had a nice game for us and she was more aggressive in the second half,” said Coach Zimmerman.  Pelican Rapids slowly pulled away and built a 26-15 lead after a Tollefson basket with six minutes left in the game and it looked like the Vikings were going to pull away. Crookston continued to play outstanding defense and forced a bunch of turnovers, but trailed 31-20 with 1:10 remaining. Crookston finished the game strong with a Cwikla basket as she spun in the lane and Halle Winjum scored on a baseline runner. After a Pelican Rapids free throw with 31 seconds left, Halle Winjum banked a three-pointer to get within a 32-27 deficit with 13 seconds left. Neither team scored in the final seconds and Pelican Rapids held on for a 32-27 victory.  “I thought we finished the game with some urgency and that was good to see.  We played a great defensive effort and played better on the offensive end in the half.  I thought Jenna Coauette had one of her best games tonight and made a big three-pointer to get us going and she had some nice assists.  We picked up our offensive in the final five minutes and Jenna was a big part of that,” said Coach Zimmerman. “This game made us better tonight and this was a great game for our girls to see the physical play.  I told the girls we took a step forward in toughness tonight.  We got more physical as the game went along and it is too bad we couldn’t make our shots tonight.  We had a lot of good shots, but they wouldn’t fall.”

Crookston drops to 16-4 on the year and will travel to Glyndon on Monday to play Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton. Pelican Rapids improves to 18-0 on the year.