Five-year playoff drought ends for Port

The Port Washington High School girls’ basketball team halted one last undesirable streak before their season came to a close.

The Pirates on Feb. 22 won their first playoff game since 2017, and they did it in dominating fashion.

The No. 11-seeded Pirates blew the doors off of No. 6-seeded Milwaukee Vincent’s gym, 64-28, behind intense defense that led to easy buckets.

Freshman Lillian Merow nearly outscored the Vikings herself, pouring in 27 points. She used her hustle as much as her height, coach Jakob Wahl said.

“A lot of our baskets were scored in transition with her running to the rim,” he said.

Freshman guards Sierra Miller and Hope Gilhooly consistently fed their center the ball.

Merow got her share of putbacks as well.

The Pirates’ defense didn’t press the Vikings, but they did enough to force turnovers.

“Our defensive pressure picked up as the game went on,” Wahl said.

He praised Gilhooly and Paige Scheuneman for helping contain Viking Amariona Humphrey. She still scored 17 points — her average — but the pair did a good job of “just being able to get the ball out of her hands,” Wahl said. No other Viking scored more than four points.

Wahl also continued to laud Miller, who is led the team well as a freshman.

“Sierra is still doing a nice job of getting people organized, especially on the offensive end of the court,” he said.

Against the Vikings’ zone, he said, Miller did a good job of controlling the tempo and knowing when to push the ball and when to pull it back.

Senior Kayla Johnson, the only starter who isn’t a freshman and who stuck with the program through thin times and a knee injury, scored 12 points, and Scheunemann had nine.

“It’s a good thing for our program to go on the road and take care of that,” Wahl said.

Third time not the charm vs. Slinger

The win earned Port another game against No. 3-seeded Slinger, which swept the Pirates during the North Shore Conference season.

The Pirates got off to a good start. Scheunemann had seven first-half points before injuring her shoulder.

“Then our depth just really got hurt. We were down to playing six players at that point and Slinger went on a little bit of a run.”

The Owls came away with a 71-40 win on Friday, then lost to No. 2-seeded Cedarburg, 63-55, on Saturday.

Port finished the season 6-20 overall and 2-16 in the NSC, tied for last with Nicolet, a drastic improvement over last season’s 0-19.

“We’re really happy with the progress the girls made this year. It takes a lot to flip from an 0-for season,” Wahl said.

“I don’t think anyone’s satisfied where we’re at. The girls want more.”

Port boys drop playoff tune-up vs. WB West

The Port boys lost to West Bend West, 65-61, last Thursday, five days before they would face the Spartans in the playoffs.

Kenyon Davis and Matt Esselmann each had 16 points. Mikey Ross had 10.

West’s Jayden Omernick had 21 points.

CG-Belgium boys edged at Kohler

Sam Peiffer scored 18 points but missed a shot late in a 71-69 loss at Kohler for the Cedar Grove-Belgium boys. Logan Arrowood had 18 points, and Cole Ketterhagen had 13. Kohler’s Trey Keller had 32 points.