The Crookston Pirates Boy’s Basketball team traveled to Wadena on Friday night to battle the Wadena-Deer Creek Wolverines. Both had already played two games this week, including contests last night, making this end-of-the-week game a challenge. Wadena-Deer Creek played an aggressive style with a full-court press and turned the Pirates over all night in a sloppy game on their way to a 45-24 victory. “We needed to take care of the basketball tonight and we didn’t do that,” said Pirates Head Coach Greg Garmen. “Turnovers put us in a tight spot and we never could recover.”
FIRST HALF –
The Wolverines won the opening tip-off and knocked down a three, but Jacob Hesby wasted no time in responding, knocking down a three of his own to tie the game at 3-3 less than 30 seconds in. Wadena-Deer Creek would then go on an 8-0 run to take an 11-3 lead, and they would never give Crookston the lead the entire night. Crookston would get the score back to 15-11 Wolverines, thanks to two more scores from Hesby, and a layup from Hunter Nicholas. The Wolverines turned the Pirates over multiple times in the first half thanks to their full-court pressure and used the turnovers for easy transition points to extend their lead. With the score of 26-18 Wadena-Deer Creek, the Wolverines would go on another 8-0 run forcing a Pirates timeout with the score 34-18. Another big issue for the Pirates in the first half was foul trouble, as Crookston had multiple players with at least two fouls including Jacob Hesby with three. “We have to find ways to stay out of foul trouble,” said Pirates Head Coach Greg Garmen. “When you have a scorer like Jacob (Hesby) get in foul trouble it changes the entire offense, so we have to stay out of foul trouble.” The Wolverines would outscore the Pirates in the last few minutes of the half 11-6 and take a comfortable 45-24 lead into the halftime break. The Pirates were led by Hunter Nicholas in the first half with 8 points and 5 rebounds.
SECOND HALF –
The Wolverines came out in the second half and started on an 8-0 run to open up a 53-24 lead. From there they continued to slowly build the lead until they found themselves ahead 72-39 with seven minutes remaining in the game. “We have to defend better. They had plenty of guys that could shoot the three and we couldn’t defend them,” said Pirates Head Coach Greg Garmen. “They put us in tough spots with matchups and did really whatever they wanted to all night.” Both teams then pulled their starters allowing some reserves to get playing time. The Wolverines lead never got above 35, so the game never hit running time. The teams traded a few baskets in the final few minutes, giving Wadena-Deer Creek the victory with a final score of 76-50. Crookston was led with 16 points from Hunter Nicholas, and 14 from Jacob Hesby.
Crookston falls to 4-19 on the season and will host Sacred Heart on Monday night from inside the Crookston High School gymnasium. The tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. and the game will be on the KROX Live Video Stream beginning with the RiverView Health pregame show at 7:00 p.m. Wadena-Deer Creek improves to 11-11 this season with the win.
| 1st | 2nd | Final | |
| CROOKSTON | 24 | 26 | 50 |
| Wadena-Deer Creek | 45 | 31 | 76 |
| For CROOKSTON | Points | Rebounds | Assists/Steals |
| Hunter Nicholas | 16 | 5 | 1 block/1 steal |
| Jacob Hesby | 14 | 3 | 2 steals |
| Ryan Abeld | 6 | 3 | 2 assists/2 steals |
| Jack Garmen | 6 | 4 | 3 assists/1 steal |
| Tanner Giese | 3 | 2 | 2 assists/1 steal |
| Isaac Thomforde | 3 | 1 | 1 assist |
| Haden Michaelson | 2 | 1 steal |
| For Wadena-Deer Creek | Points |
| Payton Rondestvedt | 13 |
| Payton Church | 13 |
| Josiah Kallevig | 12 |
| Phillip Ross | 8 |
| Tesha Loer | 7 |
| Isaac Christianson | 6 |
| Isaac Harmann | 6 |
| Josh Dykhoff | 5 |
| Lyrik Haug | 2 |
| Noah Johnson | 2 |
| Nick Briggs | 2 |
