Grafton boys solve polygon defense

It’s no secret that Alex Huibregtse and Brock Heffner are the most potent weapons for the Grafton High School boys’ basketball team, and that’s who West Bend East tried to shut down last Friday.

The Suns ran a triangle and two defense, with one player on top, two down low and the other two guarding Huibregtse and Heffner wherever they went.

It was the first time the Hawks saw that type of defense this season and it worked early as the Suns took a 30-29 halftime lead at home.

But Grafton coach Damon James put out the call.

“We told other guys to take that as a challenge,” he said, “and the other guys did.”

The Hawks stormed to a 14-point advantage in the second half in a 68-55 victory. The Hawks went to 8-3 in the North Shore Conference while East fell to 4-7.

Tyler Tsui scored 12 points, going 3-for-7 on three pointers, and had five assists. J.P. Benzschawel added nine points, seven rebounds and five assists. Jacob Aleknavicius scored seven points and had four assists.

The Hawks figured out the Suns’ defense and Huibregtse, who averages 25.1 points per game, still managed to score 26, shooting 7-for-11 from two-point range. Heffner added 12 points.

“The guys did a good job not panicking, not rushing. Tyler Tsui knocked down open shots early,” Jones said. In the second half, “J.P. played well and Alex got hot.”

Jones also praised the play of Zach Weir, Joe Birch and Caleb Ruger.

Dawson Rondorf led the Suns with 16 points. Evan Roell scored 13. Sam Geldnich had 11 and Keghan Tighe had 10.

On Jan. 28, the Hawks applied the Kansas City Chiefs’ postseason philosophy to beat Milwaukee Vincent on the road, 65-62.

With less than six minutes to play, the Hawks were down by 15, just as the Chiefs were down 10 points in the Super Bowl and fell behind by double digits in both playoff games before that.

And just as the Super Bowl winners were led by star quarterback Patrick Mahomes, the Hawks’ leader drove his team.

“Alex was key in the comeback for sure. He started knocking down shots, he started getting to the rim,” Jones said. “We changed things up defensively that forced them to make some turnovers.”

Several Hawks helped close out the victory.

Huibregtse hit a three-pointer to give the Hawks the lead for good at 61-60. Aleknavicius was later fouled and he made both clutch free throws to make it 63-60. With about 30 seconds left, Heffner got a key rebound and shot an outlet pass to Weir for a layup to push the lead to 65-60.

The Vikings scored after a scramble for the ball in the final seconds.

“It was a lot of effort from a lot of guys,” Jones said.

Huibregtse scored 32 points and Heffner scored 16. Weir had nine.

Kishon Barnes led the Vikings with 23 points. Brionne Williams had 13. Vincent fell to 9-7 overall. They are undefeated in the Milwaukee City Conference at 6-0.

“It was a hard-fought victory. Give Vincent credit. They played hard,” Jones said.

“We were able to weather the storm and I just was proud of our guys with the resiliency that they showed.”

Jones added that falling behind big is “not ideal” in trying to win basketball games, and it wasn’t the first time the Hawks have had that happen this season.

“I don’t know what it is. We’re trying to fix these slow starts,” Jones said.

The Hawks, 12-3 overall and winners of four straight, on Tuesday were to host Homestead (6-5 NSC) and play at Whitefish Bay (9-2) Friday. They host Hartford (3-9) on Tuesday, Feb. 11.

Long range funk foils Port Washington

The statistics for the Port Washington and Slinger game looked relatively even last Friday, with the Owls having just slight edges in a few categories.

But they had a big advantage in one: Slinger went 8-for-17 on three-pointers to Port’s 4-for-17 in a 62-46 victory.

“That’s the difference in the game there,” coach Brian Hebein said.

“We had good looks. A couple of big shots rimmed out. If we shoot our normal percentage, we probably make seven or eight and you’ve got a completely different ball game.”

Evan Lilly led the Pirates with 12 points, and Noah Melka battled inside for 10.

“It’s nice to have a guy that you can dump the ball down to, knowing he has a good chance of making a move and scoring on the block,” Hebein said.

“If they collapse on him, more often than not that should open up things.”

The Pirates got off to a bad start again, falling behind 8-0 and 12-2, but battled back to a 25-17 halftime deficit.

“We managed to get some stops and keep ourselves in the game,” Hebein said.

“We’re still figuring out how we can come out of the gate a little quicker and not get ourselves in a hole. Then we spend a lot of energy trying to get back in it.”

Brad Brewer led Slinger with 14 points. Derek Wiest had 13 and Derek Erdmann had 10.

The Pirates went to 2-10 in the North Shore Conference and 2-11 overall. Slinger is 9-3 in the NSC and in third place.

The Pirates played at Nicolet (9-2 NSC) on Tuesday, host West Bend West (0-11) on Friday and play at Cedarburg (6-5).