The Crookston Pirates Boys Basketball team struggled from the field in the first half as the East Grand Forks Green Wave built a big halftime lead on their way to an 83-46 win in a Section 8AA game played at the Crookston Sports Center.
1st Half
East Grand Forks scored on the opening possession when Sam Vovata hit a 10-foot jumper. And the Pirates answered right back when Jacob Miller fed Brooks Butt for an easy two off the right block in the opening 35 seconds. The Pirates went cold from that point on as the Green Wave went on an 11-0 run over the next 4:17 to build a 13-2 lead. The Pirates would use free throws to hang around climbing within six points when Easton Tangquist hit a layup to make the score 19-13 East Grand Forks. The Green Wave took over from there though and would finish the half on a 26-9 run. “That’s been our M-O lately, not being able to score,” said Pirates Coach Greg Garmen. “I thought, for the most part, we handled the pressure getting up the court, but then struggled in the halfcourt and didn’t shoot well. I thought we battled well for the first seven minutes but needed to hit a couple of buckets. It’s a lot easier game to play when you’re scoring and we didn’t.” The Pirates made just four field goals in the first half but were 13-14 at the free-throw line as they trailed 45-22 at the break. “We’re shooting 50 percent at the line on the year right now,” said Garmen. “So, that was a step in the right direction. But we struggle to draw fouls. We got to the line a couple of times but have to have the ability to draw fouls and hope you get some called but we got there a few times and shot well, so that was nice to see.” Tangquist led the Pirates with 10 points including 8-8 at the line.
2nd Half
The Green Wave picked up in the second half where they left off with a 12-4 run over the first 5:35 before Jack Garmen hit a three to cut into the lead at 57-29. Tangquist hit a layup with 10:38 to go to cut the lead back to 28 at 61-33 but the Pirates would draw no closer. “Eastside is playing loose because they are up big and it’s a lot easier to play loose when you’re up big,” said Garmen. “When you’re tight and every shot counts you have to be able to hit them and we didn’t hit enough of them. We need to be able to score and defend. I didn’t think we did a very good job defending early. We tightened up a little bit later but we needed to slow them down. They had a lot of wide-open looks and we didn’t even have a hand in the face. We have to do a better job of getting out on guys.” Carter Bruggeman hit a jumper with under six minutes to play to make the score 75-40 before both teams started to go deep into their bench as the Green Wave went on to win 83-46. The Pirates finished the night 17-19 at the line.
The Pirates fall to 1-8 on the year and will host Win-E-Mac Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in a game that will be video-streamed on kroxam.com. The Green Wave improve to 4-4 and will host Warroad on Saturday afternoon.
| 1st | 2nd | Final | |
| East Grand Forks | 45 | 38 | 83 |
| CROOKSTON | 22 | 24 | 46 |
| For Crookston | Points | Rebounds | Assists/Steals |
| Easton Tangquist | 17 | 0 | 2 steals |
| Jack Garmen | 14 | 3 | |
| Brooks Butt | 4 | 1 | 1 steal |
| Jacob Miller | 2 | 1 | 1 assist |
| Karsten Isaacson | 2 | 0 |
| For East Grand Forks | Points |
| Sam Votava | 17 |
| Tanner Campos | 13 |
| Casey Vasek | 6 |
| Jeremiah Haavig | 6 |
| Tyson Mahar | 6 |
| Cole Gerber | 6 |
