The Crookston Pirate Girls Basketball team only allowed six first-half points and cruised to a 54-15 victory over the East Grand Forks Green Wave in the regular-season finale for both teams on Parents night in Crookston.
FIRST HALF
Crookston jumped out to a 4-3 lead with Emma Borowicz scoring all four points. East Grand Forks responded with a Maddy Manger three-pointer. Crookston’s Emma Boll made a free-throw to take a 5-3 lead. East Grand Forks’ Ella Eggers made a basket to tie the game at 5-5 with 14:30 left in the half. “I thought we were playing decent and the pace was a little slow,” said Pirate Coach Darin Zimmerman. “We knew if we settled down and contested things a little better we would be okay.” The offensive wheels fell off for the Green Wave at this point as Crookston finished the half on a 14-1 run behind solid defense, tremendous passing, and some pretty good rebounding. In the run, seven different Pirates scored and they took a 28-6 lead into halftime. “Any time we can do that we will take it,” said Coach Zimmerman. “We were good defensively, and our balanced showed tonight. Overall, I think everybody that plays can do some damage.”
SECOND HALF
Crookston scored the first seven points of the second half with Halle Winjum getting a basket on a steal, Emma Boll scored with a nice move in the paint, and Halle capped the run with a three-pointer for a 35-6 lead four minutes into the half.
East Grand Forks got their first points of the half when Alison Kovar made a three-pointer, but Crookston responded with a 14-2 run led by Emma Osborn’s six points for a 49-11 lead with 8:20 left in the game and running time started. “She can stretch the floor and one of the best shooters in the section, I think,” said Coach Zimmerman. “It was nice to have her back tonight.” Crookston got everybody in the game the rest of the way and cruised to a 54-15 victory. “We take every game one game at a time and we were aware the playoffs are coming up and we wanted to get everybody in,” said Coach Zimmerman. “We had a pretty good regular season and we have to keep working on getting better, continued playing good defense, rebounding will be key, and try to be more consistent on the offensive end.”
Crookston ends the regular season with a 14-3 record and will be the number one seed in the Section 8AA North sub-section. The Pirates will play the winner of a play-in game (Bagley and Warroad) on Wednesday at 7:00 p.m.
East Grand Forks ends the regular season with a 7-11 record.
| 1st | 2nd | Final | |
| East Grand Forks | 6 | 9 | 15 |
| CROOKSTON | 28 | 26 | 54 |
| For Crookston | Points | Rebounds | Assists/Steals |
| Emma Osborn | 12 | ||
| Halle Winjum | 11 | 4 | 5 steals/4 assists |
| Emma Borowicz | 11 | 3 | 4 assists/3 steals |
| Hayden Winjum | 9 | 7 | 2 assists/2 steals |
| Emma Boll | 5 | 4 | 2 steals |
| Ally Perreault | 4 | ||
| Jenna Coauette | 2 |
| For East Grand Forks | Points |
| Ella Eggers | 4 |
| Alison Kovar | 3 |
| Maddy Manger | 3 |
| Brynn Havis | 3 |
| Cailin Hovde | 1 |
| Hanah Jensen-Selnes | 1 |
