The Pirates are gaining their confidence back one game at a time. Crookston won its second consecutive game Monday in Frazee with a 73-48 win over the Hornets. The back-to-back wins snapped a stretch where the Pirates lost nine of ten games. They are now 9-9 on the season and 4-6 in the section, while Frazee is 1-19 overall and 1-6 in the section.
In the back-to-back wins, Crookston has beaten Fisher-Climax, which is averaging 46.5 points per game, and Frazee, which averages 41.8 points per game. But after the rough stretch, the Pirates will take any wins they can get.
"We'll take it," Pirate head coach Greg Garmen said. "We got a good look at a lot of kids tonight. We'll be well-wrested for Stephen-Argyle tomorrow. There are no excuses."
When asked if the Pirates were returning the form they had at the beginning of the season, Garmen said, "I hope so. We're playing with more energy. I thought we could've hustled more tonight. We need to dial it in. We can't afford to take trips off."
Emerging from the recent winning streak is Tim Desrosier, who led Crookston against Fisher-Climax with 12 points and posted nine points against Frazee.
"He's played well lately," Garmen said. "He got things going. He goes to the basket nicely and is working on his jump shot. We need him to step up."
The Hornets struggled to shoot the ball all night long but jumped out to a 6-3 lead in the opening three minutes. Crookston got things rolling with a 15-0 run after that. Desrosier highlighted the stretch by stealing the ball back after giving up an errant pass and laying in a bucket. Shane Chapman capped the run with 9:47 left with three free throws after a foul beyond the arch.
A few minutes later with the Pirates leading 20-10, they went on another 15-0 run, which was capped with four minutes left and a bucket down low by Papou Maiga to make it 35-10.
The Hornets finished out the rest of the half by scoring nine of the final 11 points, including two points at the buzzer off a turnover. Frazee went into the locker room down 37-19 with a little confidence.
Josh Baldock quickly shot down that confidence in the first few minutes of the second half when he put up six straight points in a span of less than a minute to make it 47-23.
Crookston continued to make short runs throughout the rest of the game to come away with the 73-48 win.
A total of 12 different Pirates scored points in the game as coach Garmen was able to keep his starters fresh.
Baldock led Crookston with 16 points, while Chapman added 11. Desrosier and Brandon Lyczewski each posted nine, Maiga added eight, Carter Denison recorded five, William Pankow had four and Matt Bjorgo knocked down a three. Ben Curran, Alex DeBoer, Chris Larson and Dan Mykleseth each had a pair of points.
Matt Woodard led the Hornets with 16 points, while Daniel Janu added nine.
The Pirates will try to make it three straight wins tonight when they hit the road again to take on Stephen-Argyle. They will travel again Friday to face Wadena-Deer Creek.
