After 41 years of coaching in Crookston, Ed Nelson was on the bench for his final game Thursday in Thief River Falls as the Pirates and Prowlers faced off the in the opening round of the Section 8AA Playoffs. Thief River Falls ended Crookston's season with a 50-40 loss.
"We weren't balanced," noted Pirate head coach Greg Garmen. "We rushed things. We might have been a little too hyped up with it potentially being our last game of the season."
Both teams came out and matched each other's intensity. The Prowlers held a slight lead until midway through the first half when Crookston capped a 6-0 run with a Papou Maiga bucket to make it 12-11.
Thief River Falls answered with a 9-1 run immediately after, a run capped by a three from the 6'4" center Jonathan Milks with 2:30 left.
Milks finished the first half strong and continued to help build the Prowler lead as he hit another three less than a minute later and converted a three-point play 19 seconds after that with 1:21 left in the first half.
At halftime, Thief River Falls led 28-15 thanks to the outside shooting from Milks.
Coach Nelson noted after the game that he thought Thief River Falls saw a mismatch with Milks and 6'9" Pirate center William Pankow. After asking the Prowler coaches about it, Nelson said that was the matchup Thief River Falls was looking for.
The reason it was a mismatch was because Milks' ability to shoot from the outside which forced Pankow out of the paint where he is comfortable and where he can block shots.
The start of the second half was similar to the first half in that both teams played fairly even.
However, about six minutes into the half, Ben Curran knocked down two free throws which started a 15-2 run. In that stretch, Thief River Falls recorded just two points in a span of about ten minutes. Carter Denison capped the run with about four minutes left in the half with a free throw to cut the deficit to 42-36.
Despite the big chunk cut into the deficit, Crookston could not get closer than six points as it struggled to hit shots down the stretch.
"I thought our defense played well," said coach Garmen. "We just couldn't score. We were struggling with the bunnies (short jumpers). I don't think we hit more than one shot from the outside in the first half."
