Girls' basketball: Samuelson lifts Pirates past ranked Prowlers 57-56

The Pirates knocked off Thief River Falls, ranked No. 9 in Class AAA, 57-56 Friday in Crookston. Junior center Erica Samuelson led the Pirates with 16 points.

Crookston improves to 10-7 on the season. Thief River Falls hadn't lost since Dec. 6, 2011 and had its 15-game win streak snapped. It is now 16-3 on the season.

"It was a very satisfying win," Pirate Head Coach Lon Boike said after the game. "We came out and played very well. I thought we played tremendous defense in the first half."

Of Thief River Falls' 21 first half points, ten of them were free throws.

In the first half, Crookston jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the opening six minutes with a pair of threes from freshman Sydney Boike to start it off.

Thief River Falls didn't record a field goal until more than eight and a half minutes in. However, its first field goal with 9:27 left in the first half started a 12-0 run, which gave the Prowlers a 17-14 lead with 5:47 left.

"We lost our focus a little bit," Coach Boike said. "It didn't take them long to get back in the game."

After that, however, the Prowlers didn't record a field goal for the rest of the first half, while the Pirates scored 15 of the final 19 points to take a 29-21 lead into the halftime break.

Crookston started the second half with an 8-2 run, which included back-to-back-to-back buckets by Samuelson to give the Pirates a 37-23 lead with 14 minutes left.

Following a pair of free throws and a three-point play by Prowler Brooke Yaggie, the Pirates went on a 9-0 run over about four minutes and took a 44-28 lead.

Thief River Falls' Lindsey Guzek hit her team's first three of the night with 7:40 remaining, which sparked a 13-4 run that cut the deficit to just seven points with five and a half minutes to play.

Then, another Prowler run, this time a 9-3 stretch over about three minutes that made it 55-53 Crookston with less than a minute to play.

Pirate junior guard Taylor Demarais hit a pair of clutch free throws with less than a minute left to make it a four-point game.

After a Prowler free throw, Yaggie scored a big bucket with ten seconds left to cut the deficit to one.

The Pirates then missed both of their ensuing free throws and a half-court heave by the Prowlers at the buzzer missed the mark, giving Crookston the victory.

Boike and freshman center Brooke Heggie each added nine points for the Pirates. Demarais had eight points, while junior guard Katie Davidson had five points.

Yaggie led Thief River Falls with 25 points, while Guzek added 20. The next highest scorer for the Prowlers was Crystal Amundson with four points.

"Most home games we play with a lot of energy," Coach Boike said. "I think the girls were looking forward to this game with the rivalry we have. I didn't have to say anything tonight to get the girls fired up for this game."

Coach Boike noted the difference between the two squads.

"We are much more balanced at scoring," he said. "Their center, Amundson, usually averages 10-12 points per night but she only had four tonight and that's credit to Erica and Brooke."

The Pirates are gaining confidence with each game they play.

"Against Central Cass we played them down the last seconds," said Coach Boike. "We are getting better and better and now we're winning close games. We made some mistakes down the stretch but we'll learn from those."

The Pirates play eight of their final nine regular season games on the road. On Tuesday they are in Greenbush to face the Badger/Greenbush-Middle River Gators.