PIRATE GIRLS BASKETBALL EARN A BIG WIN OVER HAWLEY

The Crookston Pirate Girls’ Basketball team snapped a six-game losing streak with a 47-37 win over the Hawley Nuggets in a Section 8AA game played at the Crookston High School Gymnasium.

Rachel Hefta opened the scoring with a lay-up from the left side of the lane giving the Pirates a 2-0 lead. Hawley responded with a corner three-pointer made by Rianna Lilleby giving the visitors a 3-2 lead. Danielle Boyle took a steal for the Pirates and drove to the other end for a lay-up giving Crookston a 4-3 lead. Emma Borowicz made a pass to Kasey Cwikla resulting in a lay-up pushing the hosts lead to 6-3. The Nuggets Abigail Rux buried a three-pointer at the other end after a Hawley lay-up giving the visitors an 8-6 lead. Danielle Boyle sent an inbound pass to the right block for Rachel Hefta ended in a lay-up tying the game at 8-8. A pass from Gretchen Theis to Hefta ended in another lay-up giving Crookston a 10-8 lead.  Hawley answered with another corner three-pointer from Rianna Lilleby regaining an 11-10 lead for Hawley. Kaylie Crabtree made a follow-up three-pointer pushing the Nuggets’ lead to 14-10. Hawley continued to separate with an 11-0 run giving the visitors a 19-10 lead. Kylie Solheim made a pair of free-throws brining Crookston within 19-12 before Kasey Cwikla made a jump shot from the paint after a spin away from her defender trimming the deficit down to 19-14. Crookston closed the first half with a 6-0 run as Hayden Winjum converted a steal into a lay-up bring the Pirates within 19-16 at halftime. “We got some stop to sort of end the half,” said Crookston head coach Darrin Zimmerman. “Our offense started to pick up, and we converted some transition opportunities and just really executed a lot better and got some momentum going into the half.”

Crookston continued its scoring run into the second half with an Emma Borowicz three-pointer tying the game at 19-19. Danielle Boyle followed up with a three-pointer giving Crookston a 22-19 lead. Emma Borowicz made a lay-up followed by a Boyle lay-up giving the Pirates a 26-19 lead. Kylie Solheim made a three-pointer from the corner to close out the 19-0 run with Crookston in front 29-19. Hawley’s Rianna Lilleby made a three-pointer to halt Crookston’s run with another three-pointer from Kylie Crabtree on Hawley’s next possession bringing the Nuggets within 31-25. Rachel Hefta scored a lay-up at the other end to give Crookston a 33-25 lead. Paige Thompson finished a lay-up through a foul to bring Hawley within 33-27 before a Borowicz mid-range jump shot and Hefta lay-up along the baseline sparked Crookston to a 37-27 lead. Rachel Hefta made a three-pointer from the top of the key to answer a Hawley triple giving the Pirates a 40-30 lead. Emma Borowicz sealed the win with a steal and lay-up through a foul. Her free-throw pushed Crookston ahead 43-30 giving the Pirates enough distance to eventually close out the 47-37 win. “Give Hawley credit,” summarized Zimmerman. “In the first half they got us into some bad spacing situations and as a result we weren’t really running our offense the way we needed to. I thought once we got that cleaned up a little bit we got a lot better looks, we were more attacking than we had been and that freed pretty much everything up. We got some shots in the paint. We got better three-point opportunities and that’s what you’re looking for. We really just wanted to go out and win every possession and when we play like that we’re really, really good and that was the momentum that we needed. We came out and got a lead and were able to sustain that lead for pretty much the entire second half. We’ve been playing pretty well lately, just haven’t done enough at key times in some games or put a full 36 minutes together, but tonight was probably one of our most complete games. It was a good win for our team.”

Crookston improves to 12-10 and returns to the court Thursday when the Pirates host Barnesville at 7:30 p.m. on KROX. Hawley falls to 12-6.