EAST GRAND FORKS RALLIES FOR A 74-69 WIN OVER THE CROOKSTON PIRATE BOY’S BASKETBALL

East Grand Forks was down by as many as eight points in the first half and trailed 35-33 at halftime, but the Green Wave rallied with sophomore Chase Lindgren hitting four three-pointers in the second half, 18 total to lead the Green Wave to an exciting 74-69 win over the Crookston Pirates at the Crookston High School.

FIRST HALF
Crookston started strong, leading 10-4, four minutes into the game, but the Green Wave answered to close the gap to 16-14. The Pirates stopped the East Grand Forks 6-0 run with their rebounding and scoring leader Hunter Nicholas doing both with a miss, followed by a rebound put back and one free throw and the 3-point play to make it 19-14 with just over seven minutes to go in the game. The Pirates Isaac Thomforde did some excellent work underneath and ended up getting fouled and had two free throw shots, hitting the first one and on his second attempt which he missed, the Green Wave were called for a pushing foul in the free throw lane. Thomforde then got a second chance at the free throw and made it this time, followed by two more free throws by Caden Boike, and Crookston led 23-15 with seven minutes left in the half. East Grand Forks would answer with another 6-0 run to close the gap to 23-21 Crookston lead with four and a half minutes left. East Grand Forks would eventually tie the game when 6’2 junior Austin Rusling would go up for a two-handed dunk to tie it at 25-25. Thomforde would come back with a three to answer, and with 1:20 to go in the half, Crookston led 34-30. East Grand Forks got another three-point play from Rusling, but the Pirates led 35-33 at halftime.

SECOND HALF
East Grand Forks scored first to tie the game in the second half 35-35. Crookston was trailing 40-38 when Rusling went up for another dunk. The ball flew high in the air with Rusling hanging on the rim, which got him a technical. Crookston’s Tyler Michaelson made both free throws to tie it at 40-40 with 15 minutes left in the game. They continued tied at 42-42 when the Pirates scored twice downcourt to take a 46-42 lead. It was short-lived as the Green Wave came back with a 7-3 run to tie it at 49-49. Then, with 10 minutes to go, the Green Wave’s Carson McDonald had a couple of steals and baskets to put East Grand Forks up 53-49. Michaelson would answer with a three to make it 53-52 with around seven minutes left. Lindgren took over in the second half with four three-pointers, and East Grand Forks forged a 56-52 lead. This was followed by another two-hand slam by Rusling to give the Green Wave a 58-52 lead, their biggest of the game, with 5:30 minutes left. Crookston took a time-out, but the Green Wave wasn’t through yet, with Lindgren hitting back-to-back treys and opening their biggest lead at 64-54. Crookston tried to make a little run at the end but ran out of time and missed shots but got it within five points and ended up on the short end of a 74-69 score.

Crookston falls to 5-16 on the season and will travel to Thief River Falls for another Section 8AA game. East Grand Forks improves to 10-10 on the year, winning their fifth of the last seven games, and will host Badger-Greenbush-Middle River on Thursday.
JV –  East Grand Forks won 56-44
C-Squad –  East Grand Forks won 65-16

CLICK HERE to listen to Coach Garmen’s post-game comments