PROWLERS EXPLODE OFFENSIVELY TO DEFEAT CROOKSTON PIRATES BOY’S BASKETBALL

The Crookston Pirates Boys Basketball team traveled to Thief River Falls on Monday night for an important Section 8AA game against the Prowlers. Crookston got an early lead, but Thief River Falls asserted their dominance the rest of the way as they cruised to an 80-42 victory. “I thought we played hard again tonight,” said Pirates Head Coach Greg Garmen. “We just couldn’t rebound inside and they took advantage.”

FIRST HALF –

The game got off to a strange start as the Prowlers were hit with a Technical Foul for dunking in warmups. Jack Garmen would knock down a free throw and on the Pirates first possession hit a three and Crookston led 4-0 right away. Jacob Hesby would counter with two three-pointers of his own and Crookston had built their lead to 10-3 after a few minutes. “We have had a tendency to get off to good starts this year,” said Pirates Head Coach Greg Garmen. “We were able to start well but we just ended up giving up way too much defensively. Thief River Falls controlled the rest of the half, and their offense started to click. They would score 20 of the next 25 points to take a 23-15 lead, forcing a Pirates timeout. The Prowlers would slowly continue to build their lead thanks to many offensive rebounds due to their size, and Crookston would find themselves down 34-18 with 5:00 left in the first half. “We need to have more spring in our legs when we rebound and unfortunately we don’t have a lot of kids that jump that well,” said Pirates Head Coach Greg Garmen. “We just have to box out and get after it. It’s easy to talk about it but it’s been tough for us to do this year.” Jack Garmen and Tanner Giese would hit back-to-back three-pointers and cut the lead to 37-25, but the Prowlers would score the last seven points of the first half and take a 44-25 lead into the halftime break. The Pirates only had three players score in the first half, as they were led by Jack Garmen with 14, Jacob Hesby with 6, and Tanner Giese with 5.

SECOND HALF –

Thief River Falls continued to score and hit 3 three-pointers to begin the second half and stretched their lead to 58-28 with 14:44 left to play. “We never were able to get back into it at that point,” said Pirates Head Coach Greg Garmen. “We have to be able to hit all our shots from outside and they were scoring at such a high rate down low that we couldn’t keep up.” Crookston never recovered and Thief River Falls continued to build their lead until it was running time. Crookston did have four more players score in the second half before the game ended, as Hunter Nicholas had 4 points, and Isaac Thomforde, Haden Michaelson and Evan Christensen each scored 2. “Evan is one that always shows up and is a very vocal guy and leader for us,” said Pirates Head Coach Greg Garmen. “He doesn’t shoot that much but when he gets his chances he makes it count.” Thief River Falls added a few baskets late and ended up winning the game with a final score of 80-42.

Crookston falls to 3-13 on the season and will take the court again this Friday against Warroad in a game that will be played in Warroad. “They have another big guy so rebounding is going to be huge in that game as well,” said Pirates Head Coach Greg Garmen. “We have to guard better and hopefully we can get some good practices in leading up to the game.” The tip-off is slated for 7:30 p.m. Thief River Falls improves to 11-4 on the season with the win.