Early lead is enough for Grafton vs. West Bend East

By MITCH MAERSCH

Ozaukee Press staff

The Grafton High School boys’ basketball team flirted with blowing out West Bend East several times on Dec. 20.

The Suns never went away and kept coming back, but the Black Hawks never let them get close enough to be nervous.

Only five Hawks scored in the game, led by Juan Guererro Hernandez Jr. The sophomore guard scored 27 points on 10-for-14 shooting from the field and 7-for-11 on free throws. He also had eight rebounds and five assists.

Star guard Michael McNabb Jr. scored 23 points on 5-for-10 shooting from the field, was 3-for-3 on three-pointers and had eight rebounds and six steals.

Guard Jaiye Famakinwa scored 18 points on 3-for-5 shooting from the field and 2-for-4 on three-pointers and had six assists.

Post player Matthew Zabel scored 10 points on 5-for-5 shooting from the field.

Bennett Hildebrand scored nine points, going 3-for-4 on three-pointers.

The Hawks shot 23-for-40 (57.5%) on two-pointers and 8-for-17 (47%) on three-pointers.

Grafton jumped out to a 51-34 halftime lead.

The Suns cut the advantage to 57-45 with more than 14 minutes left, but the Hawks built the score back to 68-48 with more than 11 minutes to play.

East cut the lead to 71-61, then 83-74 with 1 minute, 10 seconds left.

Severin Hilt led the Suns with 21 points. Calvin Buss had 21, and Xaiver DuBois had 19.

Grafton, 4-2 in the North Shore Conference and 4-3 overall, was to play Dominican on Wednesday, Dec. 28, and Kaukauna on Thursday, Dec. 29, both at Concordia University Wisconsin in Mequon. The Hawks play at Slinger (1-5 NSC) on Friday, Jan. 6.

Bay’s adjustments keep Port at Bay

It took Port Washington until Dec. 20 to play a home game, and it took Whitefish Bay until the second half to ruin it for the Pirates.

Port lost, 75-58.

After Whitefish Bay took an early lead, the Pirates started to settle in and hit some shots, coach Brian Hebein said.

“Two big three-pointers by Lleyton Allen helped cut the halftime gap to 41-32,” he said.

“Coming out of the half, we made some adjustments to slow down the Dukes’ leading scorer and were successful in doing so.”

Then the Blue Dukes made their own adjustments and pulled away.

Kenyon Davis had 18 points for Port on 6-for-12 shooting. Matt Esselmann had 13 points on 5-for-11 shooting and Kyle Uselding had 12 on 4-for-8 shooting.

Jaden Guyton had 26 points for the Blue Dukes, and David Ackles had 20.

Port, 1-5 in the NSC and 2-6 overall, was to host Milwaukee Pulaski on Tuesday, Dec. 27, and an undetermined opponent on Wednesday, Dec. 28. Port hosts Hartford (2-4 NSC) on Thursday, Jan. 5.