The Crookston Pirate Girl’s Basketball squad was without their top player, Halle Winjum due to illness, and the Hawley Nuggets took advantage by forcing several turnovers on their way to a 58-46 Section 8AA victory in Hawley. “Halle leads us in almost every statistical category,” said Pirate Coach Darin Zimmerman. “I thought it took a while to figure out how to play without her, but we played better as the game went along.”
FIRST HALF
Hawley played tough defense to start the game and took a 5-0 lead with a basket from Anna Steer and a three-pointer from Kaylie Crabtree. “We got off to a slow start,” said Coach Zimmerman. “It definitely wasn’t the way we wanted to start.” Crookston finally got on the board over three minutes into the game when Abby Borowicz made a free throw and a few seconds later Emma Osborn buried a three-pointer to bring the Pirates within a 5-4 deficit. “That gave us a nice spark,” said Coach Zimmerman. The Nuggets responded with a basket from Anna Steer before Crookston’s Hayden Winjum went on a 5-0 run by herself to give the Pirates a 9-7 lead halfway through the half. The teams would exchange baskets and Crookston led 12-10 after an Emma Gunderson three-pointer. Crookston’s Osborn was hit in the face on the rebound and had a bloody lip and had to go out of the game for a long period of time and Hawley went on a 10-0 run over a four-minute span for a 20-12 lead. “That run hurt us,” said Coach Zimmerman. “We ran into some turnover problems and maybe rushed our shots a bit.” Crookston stopped the run when Borowicz made a free throw and she missed the second, but Hayden Winjum grabbed the rebound and scored to bring the Pirates within a 20-15 deficit with under five minutes left in the half. The final five minutes didn’t end well for Crookston as Hawley ended the half on an 11-5 run to take a 31-20 lead into halftime. “It wasn’t a great half, but it wasn’t a bad half either,” said Coach Zimmerman. “We did some good things, but also struggled at times too.”
SECOND HALF –
Crookston’s Ally Perreault scored the first points of the second half to bring the Pirates within a single-digit deficit (31-22). “That was a good start and Ally had some good moves in the post tonight,” said Coach Zimmerman. The teams exchanged baskets and Hawley led 35-26 when they went on a 10-0 run which included seven straight free throws for a 45-26 lead with 9:48 remaining. Osborn stopped the run with a basket and Borowicz added another. Hawley answered with a three-pointer from Kaylie Crabtree before Borowicz answered with a three and Osborn added a basket to get within a 48-35 deficit. Kaylie Crabtree answered with another three-pointer before Ally Perreault had back-to-back baskets and after a Hawley basket, Gunderson and Borowicz had baskets. Hawley added a free throw before Borowicz buried a three-pointer to get the Pirates within a 55-46 deficit with 68-seconds left, but that is as close as they would get as Hawley held on for the 58-46 victory. “The girls kept battling back and that was great to see,” said Coach Zimmerman. “When you play good teams like Hawley you see things you have to work on and moving without the ball is one thing we really need to work on.”
Crookston drops to 3-2 on the year and will host Bagley on Monday. Hawley improves to 5-1 on the year.
| 1st | 2nd | Final | |
| CROOKSTON | 20 | 26 | 46 |
| Hawley | 31 | 27 | 58 |
| For CROOKSTON | Points | Rebounds | Assists/Steals |
| Abby Borowicz | 12 | 5 | 4 steals/2 assists |
| Emma Osborn | 10 | 4 | 4 steals |
| Ally Perreault | 8 | 3 | |
| Hayden Winjum | 7 | 6 | 4 steals/3 assists |
| Emma Gunderson | 6 | ||
| Jenna Coauette | 3 |
| For Hawley | Points |
| Anna Steer | 16 |
| Kaylie Crabtree | 14 |
| Kylie Crabtree | 11 |
| Faith Rustad | 8 |
| Isabel Steer | 6 |
| Lily Peterson | 3 |
