Neither the third or fourth time was the charm for the Pirates as their season came to an end Saturday with a 55-34 loss in the Section 8AA Playoffs to East Grand Forks in East Grand Forks.
"It's disappointing from the stand point we couldn't generate any offense," said Pirate head coach Lon Boike. "I thought our defense was pretty solid. Our defense played exceptionally well."
Coach Boike pointed out the problems in the offense were due to being impatient with shot selections from outside and hesitant in taking shots in the paint.
"We rushed some shots from the outside," he said. "We couldn't seem to get anything going. With 6'2" [Kate} Warmack down low I thought we were maybe a little intimidated with her height. I thought we were hesitant in taking shots down low."
Coach Boike was very impressed with the way East Grand Forks played.
"That was the best defense they've played in the four times we've played them this year," he said.
Crookston's leading scorer Lauren Graham was held to just eight points, while Kristin Remick recorded seven and Ashleigh Erdmann and Kaylee Desrosier each added four.
Chelsea Frydenlund led the Green Wave with 12 points, while Kate Warmack had ten and Brooke Greenwood and Kayleigh Kuznia each added eight.
East Grand Forks jumped out to a 28-10 lead at the half and outscored Crookston 27-24 in the second half to advance to the semifinals.
The Pirates finished their season with a 15-13 record. Last year record was 7-18.
"We had a very nice improvement there," said Boike about the increase in wins from last season. "It's a tribute to our seniors who came in and worked extremely hard this year. I thought the seniors and juniors improved a lot. We got better and better throughout the year, which was really fun to see. Next year we return a strong group of girls and hopefully we take that next step next year."
Graduating seniors include: Erdmann, Remick, Rachel Wold and Sara Bjerk.
"We'll miss our seniors," said Boike. "They had a good work ethic and were great role models for the younger girls. We'll miss those girls a lot."
The Green Wave will face Warroad in the semifinals Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Thief River Falls.
In the other Section 8AA semifinal game, Hawley will face Pequot Lakes Tuesday at 9:15 p.m. in Wadena, Minn.
