Grafton boys protect their home court

One night after losing a winnable game at Nicolet, the Grafton High School boys’ basketball team wasn’t going to miss a chance at taking it to a rival at home.

The Black Hawks took a 15-0 lead over Port Washington on the way to a 68-53 victory on Saturday.

Port couldn’t match up with 6-feet, 7-inch senior forward Brock Heffner, who scored 35 points and had 17 rebounds. He scored nine of his team’s first 15 points and 17 in the first half, one less than the entire Pirate squad to help build a 30-18 lead.

Heffner said the team was ticked off about the night before and took it out on the Pirates.

“Honestly, it was just all momentum to start the game. We came out on fire. We needed this game,” Heffner said.

“They came out with good energy, especially defensively, and that kind of set the tone and gave us the lead we needed to sustain all night,” Grafton coach Damon James said.

“We got going right away. We were pretty good on defense. We were covering them every way possible,” 6-7 forward J.P. Benzscahawel said.

For the Pirates, not scoring for more than six minutes to start wasn’t for lack of effort.

“It’s kind of plagued us all year. At the start of the game there’s just Saran Wrap around the rim. We just can’t seem to shake loose from that. We had some amazing looks. We were moving the basketball, we were doing the right things, and we had open looks. They just weren’t falling,” coach Brian Hebein said.

The Hawks’ lead reached 20 in the second half when Benzschawel put in a bucket at point-blank range to make it 47-27 with less than 12 minutes to play, but the Pirates wouldn’t go away.

A 15-4 run got Port to within single digits at 51-42. During the stretch, forward Ryan Burmesch went 3-for-4 on free throws and drilled a three-pointer from the corner, and guard Mikey Ross grabbed a rebound and made the put-back, then got another rebound and dribbled out to the wing and drilled a three-pointer.

“That was fantastic for our guys not to give up, not to get frustrated, and then we started knocking a few shots down,” Hebein said.

“We needed to continue it,” Grafton senior guard Tyler Tsui said of the hot start. “We kind of got lackadaisical with everything, but we picked it up and got the win in the end.”

Burmesch led Port with 18 points. Matthew Esselmann had 11. Aedan Egan had eight and Nate Uselding had seven. Ross had five points before going down with a knee injury in the second half.

Benzschawel had nine points, and guard Dominic Voiland had seven points, six rebounds and three assists. Noah Bulgrin had three assists.

James said he was happy to get his seniors some playing time, praising Bulgrin, Voiland and Chase Norton for their effort.

He was less happy about his team’s free throw shooting down the stretch.

“We’ve just got to finish. Seven-for-12 is not going to cut it,” he said.

Port tried a trapping defense late to try to get back in the game.

“It’s something that we really haven’t worked on much. I was really happy to see how it turned out for us, and doing it against a quality team,” Hebein said.

Grafton splits a pair of games

While Heffner gets much of a defense’s attention, Slinger has seen enough of Michael McNabb Jr.

The Hawks won at Slinger on Dec. 22 behind 19 points from McNabb.

In their first game after Christmas break, the Hawks beat Slinger at home, Jan. 5, 59-47. McNabb scored 22 points in going 4-for-7 on three-pointers, 6-for-6 on free throws and 2-for-2 on two-pointers.

Benzschawel had 11 points and 11 rebounds. Voiland had 10 points and nine rebounds. Heffner had eight points and five rebounds.

Derek Erdmann had 18 points for Slinger. Derek Wiest had eight.

At Nicolet last Friday, the Hawks lost, 52-47.

The game was knotted at 42 before the Knights hit a big three-pointer before the Hawks had to foul down the stretch, James said.

“It’s a game I feel like if we play again we’ll come out victorious,” he said.

“We didn’t shoot the ball very well. But I love how our defense played and has been consistent.”

Heffner had 21 points and 11 rebounds. Benzschawel had eight points, 13 rebounds and four assists. McNabb had nine points.

Kobe Johnson and Jeremy Kobe each scored 12 points for Nicolet, which went to 7-2 in the North Shore Conference

Grafton, 6-3 in the NSC, was to play at Port Tuesday night, hosts West Bend West on Friday and the Milwaukee Academy of Science on Saturday.

Port looks to break into win column

Port on Jan. 5 lost at Whitefish Bay, 73-36.

Nick Burmesch had 10 points, Michael Bunyan had seven and Egan had six.

Jayden Jackson led the Blue Dukes with 20 points, and Cullen Starker had 16.

Whitefish Bay leads the NSC with Cedarburg at 8-1.

After hosting Grafton, Port, 0-8 in the NSC and 0-10 overall, plays at Hartford (1-8 NSC) on Friday, hosts Whitefish Bay on Saturday and Homestead (2-6) on Monday.