The Crookston Pirate Girls Basketball team used a 29-0 run in the first half to beat the Sacred Heart Eagles 62-34 in a game played at the Crookston High School gymnasium. In the first half, Crookston’s Emma Borowicz (a junior) scored her seventh point of the game by making a free throw that was also her 1,000th point of her career. Borowicz became the 11th Pirate Girls Basketball player to reach the milestone and the 19th Pirate basketball player to reach 1,000 points in their career. Another sidenote – Crookston Pirate Basketball All-time leading scorer, Kamille (Wahlin) Meyer is a volunteer assistant and was on the bench.
FIRST HALF-
Sacred Heart opened the game with an Ivy Edwards basket for a 2-0 lead. Crookston responded in a big way, by going on a 29-0 run over the next nine minutes. “That is exactly how we scripted it,” said Crookston Coach Darin Zimmerman, jokingly in the KROX postgame show. “We know that we are capable of doing that kind of stuff. Obviously 29-0 is unreal, but a lot of those points came off defensive stops.” Crookston led 25-2 with 9:14 left in the half when Emma Borowicz was fouled on a shot in the paint and went to the free-throw line only needed one point for her 1,000th of her career. Emma made the first free throw and her teammates, fans, and coaches celebrated and play was stopped to celebrate the milestone. “Actually the first free throw wasn’t that bad because I was pretty confident at the line,” said Borowicz. “It was neat to see the fans and the players all cheer and having my sister on the team was pretty cool.” The large Crookston crowd all had yellow signs with 1,000 on them and they raised them after the free throw was made. Emma’s younger sister, Abby was the first from the bench to give her a big hug and the rest of the team joined in the group hug. “This was a special night in a lot of ways,” said Coach Zimmerman. “Emma is a great kid. She is one of the hardest-working kids I have coached. Tonight was a little extra special for me because Emma is the first player I have coached that I saw all 1,000 points. She shared a nice moment with her teammates. It was a surreal moment and all those girls have played a big role in Emma’s milestone.” Emma made the second free throw after play resumed and Hayden Winjum ended the run with back-to-back baskets for a 29-2 lead. In the run, Crookston was led by Emma Borowicz and Hayden Winjum with eight points each, Dani Boyle and Gretchen Theis had five points each, Halle Winjum had two points and Emma Boll had a free throw. “There pressure was hard to handle,” said Sacred Heart Coach Blake Karas. “They turned us over a lot tonight.”
The teams exchanged baskets the rest of the half and Crookston took a 37-11 lead into halftime. “Defensively in the first half we were really good and played a great half,” said Coach Zimmerman.
SECOND HALF –
Sacred Heart played better defense in the second half and that led to some more offense, but Crookston seemed to come away with several steals for easy baskets and led 50-20 halfway through the second half. “I felt like we didn’t play offense until the second half,” said Eagle coach Karas. “We did a much better job in the second half and we settled down and Crookston is a very good team and they are as advertised.” Both teams went deep into the bench in the final minutes and everybody that dressed got some playing time and Crookston won 62-34. “This was a good game against a quality opponent tonight,” said Coach Zimmerman. “We saw a lot of good things on the defensive end and we tried to do some different things on the offensive end in the second half and that might have slowed down the offense a little bit, but Sacred Heart played hard and played better in the second half too.”
Crookston improves to 1-0 on the year and will travel to Win-E-Mac on Monday. Sacred Heart drops to 1-1 on the year.
J.V. – Crookston won 59-16
PIRATE GIRLS BASKETBALL 1,000 POINT SCORERS
1. Kamille Wahlin – 2274
2. Sydney Boike – 1948
3. Lauren Graham – 1421
4. Jenny Boll – 1393
5. Jamie Reese – 1318
6. Jenny Bruun – 1188
7. Taylor Davis – 1134
8. Lexi Schaar – 1083
9. Hilary Hasz – 1037
10. Tiffany Hasbrouck – 1029
11. Emma Borowicz – 1006
| 1st | 2nd | Final | |
| Sacred Heart | 11 | 23 | 34 |
| CROOKSTON | 37 | 25 | 62 |
| For Crookston | Points | Rebound | Steals/Assists |
| Hayden Winjum | 17 | 4 | 4 steals/2 assists |
| Emma Borowicz | 13 | 3 | |
| Gretchen Theis | 9 | 6 | |
| Halle Winjum | 8 | 3 steals/3 assists | |
| Dani Boyle | 8 | 3 | |
| Emma Boll | 5 | ||
| Jenna Coauette | 2 | 3 |
| For Sacred Heart | Points |
| Ivy Edwards | 11 |
| Maddi Mitzel | 8 |
| Bella Knudson | 5 |
| Grace Vonesh | 4 |
| Sydney Lloyd | 4 |
| Bella Haas | 2 |
