Cali is killing it for Grafton girls’ basketball

The Grafton High School girls’ basketball team cruised into Christmas.

The Black Hawks on Dec. 22 demolished rebuilding West Bend West at home, 84-32.

Kaylie Van Sluys scored nine points on 4-for-7 shooting and led the team in rebounds with six.

“As a freshman coming off the bench, she stepped out there and played pretty well,” coach Matt D’Amato said.

Junior guard Cali Tagliapietra scored 15 points on 5-for-9 shooting, had six steals, four rebounds and three assists. Melanie Morgan had 14 points, connecting on four of six three-pointers. Junior Brynlee Hildebrand had nine points and four assists, and senior Kendyl Conrad had eight points.

Thirteen Black Hawks scored.

“I got all 13 girls in somewhere between 12 and 20 minutes. Everybody got a pretty even piece of the pie,” D’Amato said. “They were able to run, some of them scored and did some things they’re not used to doing. Everybody played pretty solid.”

The highlight of the night, he said, was Special Olympics basketball players sitting at a table and signing shirts for the Hawks, who wore them during warmups. The Special Olympics players also played a short game during halftime.

A day later at Kiel, Tagliapietra kept it going, scoring 25 points on 11-for-19 shooting and grabbing nine rebounds in a 65-46 win.

“She played really well,” D’Amato said.

Junior Ava Dotson had 11 points, 11 rebounds and three steals.

“She played really tough. She was disrupting and frustrating their best player,” D’Amato said.

Junior Liliana Verplancke scored eight points, had four rebounds and three assists. Senior Emily Sewell drained two three-pointers off the bench, had five rebounds, two assists and two steals.

“She’s such a steady presence out there. She calmed things down,” D’Amto said of Sewell.

 “She been really good on the defensive end for us. In every sport she plays, she’s a ball of energy. You know you’re going to get her absolute best. She’s not going to take a play off. You can tell she’s been working on her game in the offseason, even though she’s a track athlete first and plays volleyball. It’s been very timely because we’ve been needing that sixth person off the bench.”

Grafton, 8-2 overall and 2-2 in the North Shore Conference, was to play in a tournament in Waunakee on Monday and Tuesday, Dec. 29 and 30.

The Hawks host Sheboygan South on Monday, Jan. 5, and rival Port Washington on Wednesday, Jan. 7.

Second halves doom Port in tourney

The Port Washington girls lost both games in the New Berlin West Viking Holiday Classic last week.

Port trailed the hosts, 31-28, at halftime on Dec. 22 before losing, 69-49.

Delaney Rauch scored 17 points. Norah Merow had 14 points and 12 rebounds. Savanna Miller had 15 points.

On Dec. 23, Port trailed Menomonee Falls, 18-15, at halftime before losing, 47-31. Miller had 13 points, five steals and four assists. Merow had 11 points and 13 rebounds.

Coach Dave Ross said some players were missing due to illness and his team didn’t play well.

Port, 6-4 overall and 3-1 in the Glacier Trails Conference, plays at Grafton on Wednesday, Jan. 7, and hosts Milwaukee Lutheran on Saturday, Jan. 10.