Pirate Girls Basketball Uses Big 1st Half Run to Beat Sacred Heart

The Crookston Pirate Girls Basketball team used a 22-3 run over a five-minute span in the middle of the first half and held on the rest of the way for a season-opening 62-52 victory over the East Grand Forks Sacred Heart Eagles in a game played in East Grand Forks.

The game looked like a season opener in the first four or five minutes with a lot of turnovers, missed shots and the teams were tied at 5-5 with 12:54 left in the half. It was this point in the game when Crookston went on their 22-3 run. Gretchen Theis got things rolling with a three-pointer, Dani Boyle followed with a basket and after a Sacred Heart timeout, Emma Borowicz added a basket, Hayden Winjum and Kylie Solheim had back-to-back three-pointers for an 18-5 lead. “We were running hard and running wide and that is our goal this year,” said Rachel Hefta on the KROX postgame show. “Everybody on this team can do a little bit of everything and it is going to be a team effort.” Sacred Heart’s Bella Knudson scored in the paint before Crookston’s Winjum scored again and after a Sacred Heart free throw, the Pirates finished the run with a Theis basket, a Solheim three-pointer and another Winjum basket for a 27-8 lead with 7:28 left in the half. “That was key. That was a great stretch of basketball and doing things well. We were good on defense and good on offense and we were able to get our transition offense,” said Pirate Coach Darin Zimmerman. “I think we have eight kids and all of them can play and it is a nice luxury to have.”

Sacred Heart started to settle down the rest of the half and chipped away at the deficit and cut Crookston’s lead down to 34-23 at halftime. “Sacred Heart made some nice plays and some tough shots, but we were able to limit their runs,” said Coach Zimmerman. “We felt good. I told the girls that for about 14 minutes we were pretty awesome and played well because Sacred Heart plays hard.”
Crookston came out strong in the second half with a Borowicz basket and after the Eagles’ Jessica Remer basket the Pirates had baskets from Winjum and Hefta. Crookston continued to build on their lead and had a beautiful reverse layup from Hefta for a 50-32 lead with less than eight minutes to play. “I pride myself on my passes and blocks and am working on my shot, but I had a lot of fun tonight,” said Hefta. Sacred Heart continued to battle and chipped away at the deficit with an 8-0 run and trailed 50-40 with 4:20 left in the game. Crookston answered with a 12-2 run and led 62-42 with 98 seconds left in the game and with the Pirates going to the bench, Sacred Heart scored the final 10 points and Crookston won 62-42. “We had way too many turnovers tonight and you’re going to have that in the first game, but a lot of them were from poor decision making,” said Coach Zimmerman, who said the scrimmages had them ready for the game. “We played some pretty good teams in the scrimmages (Roseau and Sauke Center to name a few) and I think that prepared us for this game. It is a good start and we will work on getting better before Friday.”
Crookston improves to 1-0 on the year and will host Win-E-Mac on Friday in the home opener. Sacred Heart drops to 0-1 on the year and will host Grafton on Thursday.
J.V. – Crookston won 42-17