CROOKSTON GIRL’S BASKETBALL USE 17-0 RUN TO BEAT DGF IN SECTION 8AA TOURNEY

The Crookston Pirate Girls used a 17-0 run halfway through the second half to beat the Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton Rebels in the first round of the Section 8AA girls basketball tournament played in front of a packed house in Glyndon.  The playoff victory was the first for the Pirate Girls Basketball program since the 2014-2015 season.

DGF started the game with a three-pointer but Crookston battled back to tie the game at 16 with 4:22 left in the first half.  DGF scored before Crookston went on a 4-0 run with two free throws from Kasey Cwikla and a basket from Rachel Hefta and the Pirates had their first lead at 20-18.  The lead lasted 18 seconds because the Rebels answered with a basket and two free throws for a 23-20 lead.  Crookston answered with back-to-back baskets from Kylie Solheim and Emma Borowicz for a 24-23 lead with 49 seconds left in the half.  DGF ended the half with a basket and took a 25-24 lead into halftime.  “I thought DGF did a nice job of taking some things away from us,” said Pirate Coach Darin Zimmerman. “We were happy that we trailed by one going into halftime.  It was a good first half and we were able to weather the storm a little bit.”

The second half was a wild one with the teams battling back and forth for the first six minutes and DGF built their biggest lead of the game at 36-31 with less than 13 minutes left in the game.  It was this point in the game the Pirates blew the game open with a 17-0 run over a five-minute span.  The run started with the seventh grader, Halle Winjum scoring and that was followed by a beautiful give and go play with the two seniors connecting as Hefta dumped a pass to a cutting Solheim for a layup.  “I remember that play,” said Hefta. “There was two girls next to you and Kylie was running by and I shoveled the ball to her and it worked,” said Hefta on the KROX postgame show. “It felt amazing and we played like we had hoped to all season long.”  Hefta followed with a free throw, Solheim added a free throw and a few seconds later she buried a three-pointer from the wing for a 43-36 lead. “It went off my hand perfect,” said Solheim, talking about her three-pointer. “I could just feel it, that it was going in and I started running back a little early and I started thinking it better go in now.  There was so much adrenaline going through your body and that run won us the game.”   Dan Boyle kept the run going with a three-pointer and after a steal, Hayden Winjum added two free throws before Boyle canned another three-pointer and Crookston led 48-36 with seven minutes left in the game.  “That stretch, we played some pretty good basketball. We had some good defense and turned them into points. We shot well from behind the arc,” said Coach Zimmerman. “We played really well and everybody that played in that stretch did great things for us. We started rebounding the ball and Hayden and Hall (Winjum) did a great job and Halle’s wraparound pass was probably one of the nicest plays of the night.”
After a DGF three-pointer and three missed free throws (all three in the front end of the bonus), Crookston’s Boyle scored on a layup and Halle Winjum had another steal and had a beautiful no-look wrap around pass to her older sister, Hayden, and Crookston led 52-39 with four minutes remaining.  DGF got the deficit down to single digits a couple of times, but Crookston was able to hit enough of their free throws in the final minutes and held on for a 64-47 victory.  “All game I thought we did a really good job and played well and during that run, we played the best we have played this year,” said Coach Zimmerman. “A lot of our girls are young, but they grew up in a hurry tonight. We were aggressive and I am so happy for the girls and it was a complete team effort tonight.  This is a nice win and the girls deserve it for how hard they worked.”
Crookston improves to 16-10 on the year and will play Park Rapids in the Section 8AA quarterfinals on Saturday at Concordia College in Moorhead at 6:00 p.m.  KROX will have the pre-game show at 5:20 p.m.  DGF’s season comes to an end at 17-9.