CROOKSTON GIRL’S BASKETBALL USES 13-0 SECOND HALF RUN TO DEFEAT BARNESVILLE

The Crookston Pirates Girl’s basketball team was looking for their third straight win when they hosted the Barnesville Trojans inside the Crookston High School gymnasium on Saturday afternoon. It was a tight game from the very beginning, but thanks to a 13-0 second-half run, Crookston was able to pull away for a 60-45 victory. “It’s another nice win for us,” said Pirates Head Coach Darin Zimmerman. “We didn’t always play our best and didn’t move the ball the best but we were still able to get the job done.”

FIRST HALF –

Both teams struggled early to get their offense going, and Ally Perreault finally scored a layup 90 seconds into the game to give the Pirates the early 2-0 lead. The teams traded a few baskets after that, giving Crookston the 7-4 advantage, but it was a few sloppy Pirates turnovers that allowed Barnesville to go on an 8-0 run and take a 12-7 lead. Crookston immediately responded with a 5-0 run of their own to tie the game at 12-12. It was Emma Osborn converting a three, and Ally Perreault with a reverse layup that highlighted the run. Crookston was able to use the mini-run to swing the momentum and take a slight edge at 17-16 after that with just under 7 minutes remaining in the first half. The Pirates started to find their groove both offensively and defensively from there, and thanks to the hot shooting of Emma Osborn, and a few nice defensive steals, the Pirates would go on a nice 9-1 run to take their biggest lead of the game at 26-17. It looked as if Crookston was going to start to pull away, but their offense went cold in the final two minutes, and Barnesville took advantage going on a 7-0 run of their own to cut the Crookston lead all the way down to 26-24 at the halftime break. “The biggest thing that stood out at the end of the first half, is that we got beat on a lot of cuts,” said Pirates Head Coach Darin Zimmerman. “They are a very good cutting team, so you need to be aware of that at all times. We also got a little sloppy with the basketball and gave them opportunities.” Crookston was led in the first half by Emma Osborn with 11 points, while Barnesville had a balanced attack with no one scoring more than 6 points.

SECOND HALF –

Crookston came out and scored a few points early to build their lead to 31-26, but once again Barnesville continued to counter and find an answer, scoring back-to-back baskets to pull back within one point at 31-30. Halle Winjum started to find her groove offensively and gave the Pirates some breathing room with a made three that made the score 34-30. The Trojans looked as if they were going to take over after a 6-0 run gave them their first lead of the second half, but another Pirates three and a free throw from Barnesville left us tied at 37-37 with ten minutes remaining in the game. From there, the Pirates were finally able to wear down the Trojans, and thanks to plenty of steals and a few three-pointers, Crookston would go on a 13-0 run to put the game away for good. “With a team like Barnesville you just have to stick with it,” said Pirates Head Coach Darin Zimmerman. “They have a lot of experience but we stuck with it and were able to figure it out and finally start to wear them down towards the end of the game.” Halle Winjum led the charge with 13 second-half points, and Abby Borowicz wasn’t far behind with 8 of her own. Hayden Winjum also participated in doing a little bit of everything for the Pirates during the stretch. Barnesville could never get the lead back under double digits, and Crookston would coast the rest of the way to a 60-45 victory, their 20^th of the season.

Crookston improves to 20-3 on the season and will host Stephen-Argyle on Tuesday night. The game will be on the KROX Live Video Stream starting with the RiverView Health pregame show at 7:00 p.m. Barnesville falls to 8-11 with the loss.