Girls basketball: Balanced Green Wave roll past Pirates

East Grand Forks Senior High's top scorer picked up her second foul midway through the first half, limiting her playing minutes. The Green Wave were playing their rival in a key section game as well.

But times are good for Senior High these days. Not much has slowed the Green Wave in recent weeks.

Behind 16 points from KayLeigh Kuznia and a couple of key early baskets from Brooke Greenwood, Senior High rolled past Crookston 62-45 on Tuesday night in a Section 8AA girls basketball game in the Green Wave gym.

Senior High has now won 13 of its last 14 games and improved to 16-4. In North Subsection 8AA play, Senior High is 5-0.

"We're putting together some good games," Senior High coach Durene Frydenlund said. "But we've had pretty good scoring balance the last six or seven games."

Senior High's top scorer, Chelsey Frydenlund, headed for the bench after picking up her second foul midway through the first half. But the Green Wave didn't skip a beat.

Greenwood hit back-to-back 3-pointers in the early going from the left wing to give the Wave a 10-2 lead. Kuznia then picked up the scoring load as she found open spots inside the lane against Crookston's defense.

Ten of Kuznia's points came in the first half as she helped guide the Wave to a 33-23 halftime lead.

"We set the tone early with our defense," Frydenlund said. "I sound like a broken record, but we move well."

Crookston coach Lon Boike didn't argue that point.

"We struggled against their 2-3 (zone) defense," Boike said. "They do such a good job of running that. They have such good quickness and they anticipate well. They do a good job of jumping the passing lanes."

After sitting out a good chunk of the first half, Frydenlund managed to help shoulder the scoring load in the second half. She finished with 16 points, 14 coming in the final 18 minutes.

Greewood finished with 11 and Brandi Wickersham nine for the Wave.

Crookston fell behind by 15 points three minutes into the second half but managed to pull within 10 on Taylor Demarais' 3-pointer with 11:34 remaining. Kuznia and Wickersham, however, combined for the next three points to give the Wave a 47-34 advantage.

The Green Wave slowed pulled away down the stretch.

Lauren Graham led Crookston with 18 points. Erica Samuelson added nine but no other Crookston player scored more than six points.

Crookston came into the game with a five-game win streak. The Pirates dropped to 12-7.