First half 15-point run fuels Grafton

It wasn’t part of the 15-0 first-half run that keyed a 70-57 victory for the Grafton High School girls’ basketball team over Nicolet at home last Friday, but junior Emily Grisar had the highlight of the night.

With just less than six minutes to go in the first half, the Black Hawks were to inbound the ball right next to the Knights’ basket.

Grisar saw the defender in front of her had turned her back, so she bounced the ball off the Knight, jumped inbounds, grabbed the ball and scored. The shot was up before the defender and almost anyone else knew what was happening.

“My old coach (Kevin Smith) from freshman year — it was like his signature play, so I just had the opportunity and I decided to do it,” she said.

It was the second time Grisar pulled off the play this season. Grafton coach Matt D’Amato said he told her to do it when she was inbounding the ball near the Hawks’ bench, and, “She’s kind of remembered that so now whenever anybody turns her back on her, she’s looking to do that. And she executes it so well.”

Grisar enjoys the bit of trickery.

“It feels good,” she said with a laugh.

Earlier in the first half, the Hawks took control. Tied at 6 three and a half minutes into the game, the Hawks turned up the defense a notch that led to some easy offense to take a 21-6 lead.

Senior Allison Garncarz started the run with a three-pointer, and when it got to 15-6 the Knights called a timeout. But Grafton didn’t quit.

Freshman Sarah Aleknavicius had six points in the stretch, one on a layup after a steal. Freshman Savannah James had a steal and a bucket as well. Juniors Ava Wilmanns and Ella Day each had baskets in the run.

“That was really huge because we kind of didn’t really start off with our game. We want to push the pace a lot,” Aleknavicius said of the 15-0 streak.

“We know that we’re an athletic team and we can run the court back and forth, and our defense shows it a lot,” Wilmanns said.

D’Amato said the intense defense has a specific purpose.

“Honestly, it’s more for us than for who we’re playing. If we play a little more of a pressure defense, it wakes us up. We play a little smarter, even though we still have some lapses in the game,” he said.

Aleknavicius led four Hawks in double figures with 14 points. Grisar scored 13 and had four assists. Garncarz and junior Ashley Weir each had 12 points and seven rebounds. Aleknavicius and Garncarz each made five steals.

The Hawks led 37-23 at halftime and pushed the lead to 59-39 before the Knights mounted a mini-comeback.

The game got to 59-48 with just more than four minutes to play, and D’Amato put some of his starters back in to stop the bleeding.

“All year Nicolet has been fighting back all the way to the end. It makes me nervous. We’re like that too. We don’t believe we’re ever out of a game. I didn’t want to take any chances,” he said.

“We kind of started slowing things down and settling into their pace, and then it just kind of fell out of our hands,” Aleknavicius said.

“That was a little nerve-wracking. We needed to calm it down. Coach called a few timeouts and got us under control,” Garncarz said.

The big lead allowed D’Amato to give several Hawks playing time.

“They work so hard in practice. Whenever I can find an opportunity to get them in, they deserve it,” he said.

D’Amato was pleased with Aleknavicius’ solid play at guard.

“What we need from her is the consistency that she brings, the good decision making. She is very poised and she’s a good leader. It rubs off on everyone else because she plays under control,” he said.

“It’s a good balance. We have a lot of aggressive defenders, a lot of risky players. To have someone who can level it out there is nice.”

Morgan Williams had 16 points for Nicolet. Alexis Joiner had 15, and Patricia Wright had 12.

Grafton went to 5-5 in the NSC and 6-8 overall. Nicolet went to 3-7.

Rematch with Slinger goes to the Owls

The Hawks’ win over Nicolet was a bounceback game after losing at Slinger on Jan. 5, 63-57.

Grafton beat Slinger, 66-64, on Dec. 22, after which the Owls went into quarantine. They had one practice before exacting revenge in their first game back.

“They were kind of ticked off about the last game. I still think we played well. We missed a lot of layups and didn’t shoot well at the free-throw line. We kept the turnovers low,” D’Amato said.

Garncarz had 16 points and 10 rebounds, and Day had 16 points, seven rebounds and four steals. Weir had nine points. Grisar had five assists.

Kate Hosking had 19 points for Slinger. Mallory Hoitink had 16 and nine rebounds, and Kacey Ott scored 12 points and had eight rebounds.

Grafton was to play at Port Washington (0-10) on Tuesday, at non-conference opponent Brookfield East (8-4) on Wednesday and at West Bend West (7-3 NSC) on Friday.

Port Washington looking to win first game

The Port Washington girls lost two conference games last week.

Homestead won, 66-23, at Port on Jan. 5, and host Whitefish Bay won, 59-14, last Friday.

Against the Blue Dukes, Port’s Hailey Sullivan, Tiana Davis, Sydney Hoeft and Emily Pujanauski each scored three points.

Whitefish Bay’s Sophia Simenz had 13 points and Allie Swietlik had 10. Ten Blue Dukes scored.