BARNESVILLE USES STRONG SECOND HALF TO BEAT CROOKSTON GIRLS BASKETBALL

The Barnesville Trojans used a 13-0 run in the second half to take their first lead of the game and never looked back to beat the Crookston Pirate Girl’s Basketball team 59-48 in a Section 8AA matchup in Barnesville. 

FIRST HALF –
The teams battled back-and-forth in the first four minutes with ties at 3 and 5 before Crookston’s Emma Boll scored in the paint and Kasey Cwikla added a three-pointer for a 10-5 lead with 13:32 left in the half.  “Emma Boll had a good game, especially in the first half tonight,” said Pirate Coach Darin Zimmerman. Barnesville battled back with four straight points to get within a one-point deficit, but Crookston answered with an 8-2 run with a Halle Winjum basket, which she followed up with a steal and layup. After a Barnesville basket, Crookston added a Jenna Coauette basket and two Cwikla free throws for an 18-11 lead halfway through the half. Barnesville battled back with six straight points as they grabbed several offensive rebounds to get with on point (18-17). Crookston dominated play in the final six minutes and ended the half on an 11-4 run. Crookston was sparked by Boll’s seven points and a nice drive and layup from Coauette for a 29-21 lead going into halftime. “I thought we executed well in the first half,” said Coach Zimmerman. “It was a great end of the half for us and we were playing well.”

SECOND HALF –
A little over six minutes into the second half, Crookston took a 39-33 lead after a Jenna Coauette three-pointer, but Barnesville responded with a 13-0 run over a five-minute span using a mixture of strong post play and a bunch of offensive rebounds to take a 46-39 lead with 7:18 left in the game.  “We stopped playing defense, we stopped valuing the basketball and we weren’t getting good looks,” said Coach Zimmerman. “We didn’t play with toughness tonight.” Barnesville continued to slowly pull away and hit their free throws down the stretch on their way to a 59-48 victory.  “It was not a good half of basketball for us,” said Coach Zimmerman. “We didn’t play very well in the second half and not to make excuses, but we lost Abby Borowicz to an injury and were already missing two other guards because of injury so it was tough tonight.  Barnesville is a good team and they showed it tonight.  They played more aggressive and they stepped up and made plays while we didn’t make plays.  We have to play better and be more consistant.”
The Pirates will get one of their injured players back tomorrow with Gretchen Theis getting cleared to practice on Friday.  

Crookston drops their second game in a row and is now 18-6 on the year and will host Stephen-Argyle on Tuesday. Barnesville improves to 12-11 on the year.
JV- Barnesville won 45-41 (OT)   C-Squad–Barnesville won 53-25