A cool 1,000 and counting: Ozaukee’s Schauer, Port Washington’s Baierl each reach scoring milestones

The Port Washington High School boys’ basketball team’s play couldn’t match the excitement of honoring nine seniors against West Bend East on Monday.

But that doesn’t take away from Adam Baierl’s achievement of reaching 1,000 career points. The senior guard hit a free throw with 2 minutes, 13 seconds left to reach the milestone.

Baierl said he was relieved when he made the shot.

“I had some people telling me the whole time, bugging me about it,” he said with a smile. “It’s just a bunch of great teammates. Can’t thank the coaches enough. It’s been a lot of years in the making.”

For coach Brian Hebein, it was more about Baierl’s work ethic.

“That’s awesome. It’s just a testament to the work that he’s put in throughout his career,” he said. “He’s the focus of other team’s defenses, night in night out. He’s a great kid, great captain, great leader.”

Against East, the Pirates couldn’t get their offense going in a 68-55 loss. Evan Lilly scored 17 points, including going 4-for-9 on three-pointers. Baierl scored 14 and Nolan Mueller had 10. East swept Port this year.

“We struggled to shoot the ball,” Hebein said, noting a 2-for-9 pace on three-pointers in the first half and 7-for-20 overall.

The Suns didn’t fare much better, only leading, 22-20, at the break, but picked it up in the second half. T.J. Simpson scored 23 and Dylan Polster scored 19. The Suns went 15-for-18 on free throws to Port’s 4-for-6.

Pirates top West Bend West, 56-27

Port had less trouble with the other West Bend team last Friday. Baierl scored 14, Mueller 10, and Jake Lippe and Marcus Schmit nine each in a 56-27 win at West.

The Pirates jumped out to a 31-11 halftime lead and cruised.

Nicolet dominates again, 75-40

The Pirates on Feb. 13 lost at home to one of the top-ranked teams in the country in Nicolet.

The Knights (20-1 overall) took a 38-15 halftime lead and never looked back. Baierl scored 16 and Mueller had 11.

Junior Jalen Johnson, one of the nation’s top-ranked players, scored 10 points, one of four Knights in double figures.

The bigger story was the controversy over Port students holding up photos of Johnson with charcoal on his face that could be construed as blackface. The photo came from Johnson’s Instagram page.

“We had no clue what was going on,” Hebein said.

“It’s actually pretty much a joke that our basketball team gets thrown into the mix and gets thrown under the bus with all this because we had nothing to do with it.”

Photos of the student section quickly went viral, leading to accusations of racism.

“My personal thoughts on it are it’s a horrible mistake by our student section and a great learning lesson, but I know that the intent was not what it’s being portrayed to be,” Hebein said.

“I feel bad for Nicolet players and coaches. In speaking with them, they understand it had nothing to do with our basketball team.”

Port (9-8 in the North Shore Conference) plays at Grafton (10-7) on Thursday. It earned a 7 seed in the Division 2 playoffs and hosts No. 10-seeded Cedarburg on Thursday, Feb. 26. The winner plays at West Bend East on Friday, March 1.