PIRATE GIRL’S BASKETBALL KNOCK OFF #1 SEED PARK RAPIDS IN SECTION PLAYOFFS

The Crookston Pirate Girls Basketball team used an 18-2 run in the middle of the second half and pulled away for a 63-48 victory over the Park Rapids Panthers in a Section 8AA Girls Basketball tournament game played at Concordia College in Moorhead.  Crookston pulled off their second “upset” of the tournament after knocking off #4 seed in the north Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton on Thursday and the #1 seed from the South Sub-section Park Rapids on Saturday night. 

Crookston trailed 4-1 to start the game before the Pirates made a substitution.  Coach Darin Zimmerman brought in Kasey Cwikla and Gretchen Theis and they provided a spark for a 7-1 run with five straight points from Rachel Hefta and a steal and beautiful 2 on 1 fast break with Emma Borowicz finding a cutting Hayden Winjum for a layup and Crookston led 8-4 six minutes into the game.  Park Rapids battled back to tie the game at 8, 10, 12, and 16 before Crookston used a 7-0 run for a 23-16 lead.  Crookston had a 25-18 lead with three minutes left when they caught a case of the turnover bug and Park Rapids cashed in with a 10-0 run to take a 28-25 lead with over a minute left in the first half.  “Park Rapids has some height and that gave us some problems on the run,” said Pirate Coach Darin Zimmerman. “We had a lot of turnovers and were careless with the ball and that is what got them going on the run.” Crookston ended the half with a Hayden Winjum basket and the Pirates trailed 28-27 going into halftime.  “It was nice to get that basket going into the half,” said Coach Zimmerman. “I thought overall we played a really good first half until the final minutes.  It was good to go into halftime with a little momentum.”

The start of the second half was more of the same with the teams battling back-and-forth and Park Rapids led 37-36 with 12 minutes left in the game.  It was almost like déjà vu from the Crookston first-round playoff run as the Pirates went on an 18-2 run over a six-minute span, using a complete team effort on both sides of the ball to build a 54-39 lead.  In the run, Crookston had a basket from Borowicz, two free throws from Cwikla and after missing the front end of the bonus on two straight trips the Pirates finished off the run.  Kylie Solheim made two free throws and after a Park Rapids basket Crookston answered with two Hayden Winjum free throws, a steal and basket by Borowicz, and three more steals for the Pirates led to a basket for Hefta and three straight layups for Dani Boyle and Crookston led 54-39 with 5:30 left in the game.  “It would be nice if we could put a full 36 minutes together like that,” said Coach Zimmerman with a smile. “We stuck with it and stuck with it and we came up with some stops and made some shots and it was a great team effort on both sides of the floor.  We played great team basketball with all five players working as one and the defense was outstanding.”  Crookston continued to play outstanding defense and Kasey Cwikla had some big plays in the final minutes and Crookston held on for a 63-48 victory to advance to the Section 8AA semi-finals. “Kasey had a great game tonight and did a great job, especially in the second half,” said Coach Zimmerman. “This feels great and we knew if we came out and played like we are capable of playing we could win and we did that tonight.  Our girls are very strong, in terms of mental and physical toughness.  Once the girls get going they get hungry for another big play and kudos to our crowd.  We had a great crowd tonight, the student section was great and loud and thanks to Mr. Torgerson and the pep band for playing.  It all helps and we hope to see everybody and more on Tuesday night.”

Crookston improves to 17-10 on the year and will play East Grand Forks, who had an impressive 73-47 quarterfinal win over Perham, in the semi-finals at the University of Minnesota Crookston Lysaker Gym at 7:45 p.m. on TUESDAY. After conferring with the four schools left, they agreed that moving it back to it’s original Tuesday would give the four a practice time on Monday and with three of the four closer to Crookston, Breckenridge said it was OK with them. Continually the underdog, the Pirates have lost twice to East Grand Forks during the regular season. KROX will have the game on TUESDAY with the RiverView Health pre-game show at 6:45.  Park Rapids drops to 14-11 on the year.