DEFENSE PROPELS CROOKSTON GIRL’S BASKETBALL PAST THIEF RIVER FALLS

The Crookston Pirates girl’s basketball team used a 12-0 run early in the first half to pull away towards a 59-36 win over the Thief River Falls Prowlers in a Section 8AA game played at the Ralph Engelstad Arena in Thief River Falls.
Alexa Rogalla made a jump shot to give Thief River Falls a 2-0 lead before a pair of Kylie Solheim free throws tied the game for Crookston. Hailey Rosendahl made a three-pointer to give the Prowlers a 5-2 lead before Crookston utilized a double-figure scoring run to take control of the game. Rachel Hefta made a running jump shot in the paint giving Crookston a 6-5 lead. Gretchen Theis made a lay-up through a foul to grow the lead to 8-5. Emma Borowicz added a jump shot pushing the lead to 10-5 followed by four-straight points from Danielle Boyle to gain a 14-5 lead. Leading 18-10, Crookston added a 9-0 run highlighted by a Theis three-pointer pushing the lead to 27-10. Kylie Solheim closed the half with a jump shot for the Pirates giving Crookston a 32-14 halftime lead. “We believe that our defense can create opportunities for our offense and our defense did that tonight,” said Crookston head coach Darin Zimmerman. “We know that the defensive end is completely separate from our offense and that we especially have to play well on the defensive end when we’re not making shots. We did a better job shooting compared to Tuesday night’s game and showed the resiliency we have. Give Thief River Falls some credit, they made some nice plays early on, but once we got settled in and started moving our feet better and cutting more, we were able to get both ends going.”
Hayden Winjum made a lay-up to open up second half pushing the lead to 34-14. Winjum added a steal and a lay-up a few possessions later pushing Crookston’s edge to 37-17. Emma Borowicz made a lay-up off of a steal through a foul giving Crookston a 45-27 lead before Borowicz found an open Gretchen Theis who made a three-pointer growing Crookston’s lead to 48-27 before Theis set up Borowicz for a lay-up giving the Pirates a 50-27 lead. Crookston continued to pull away the rest of the game with Jenna Coauette scoring the game’s final two points at the free throw line to close out Crookston’s 59-36 win. “There’s a lot of room for growth yet even though we’re playing well,” added Zimmerman. “We’ve just got to keep working at it on the offensive end and once we can put that altogether the sky is the limit. Give Thief River Falls some credit, their defense made some of those inside shot credit, but our girls were doing the work to get those shots inside, and those will start to fall if we keep working at it.”
The Pirates improve to 5-1 and return to the court on Tuesday when Crookston travels to Barnesville to take on the Trojans Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. Thief River Falls drops to 2-6.