Grafton gets out the brooms vs. rival

For the first time in four games, the Grafton High School boys’ basketball team didn’t put its fans on pins and needles as the clock expired, but that didn’t make for any less intensity at rival Cedarburg last Friday.

The Black Hawks avoided being swept by the Bulldogs with an 82-68 victory and kept their conference title hopes alive in a playoff-like atmosphere.

In the three games prior, the heart-stopping Hawks missed a buzzer-beater in a loss at Slinger, missed another in regulation in an overtime win over Nicolet at home and hit one to win at West Bend West.

The feeling of actually having a comfortable lead by the time the buzzer rang felt a little weird, said senior star Alex Huibregtse, who banked an inside shot to beat West.

“Yeah, it does, it does. It truly does,” he said with a laugh.

It felt good to beat Cedarburg, Huibregtse said. He scored 22 points and his friend, Bulldog star Drew Biber, scored 33.

Rising Hawks’ star Brock Heffner, who added another slam dunk to his season total, scored 29 points and added an outside shot to his repertoire. Heffner made a three-pointer and went 10-for-13 on free throws, making the 6-feet-7-inch senior a more deadly weapon.

“Me just going in the post, teams are going to easily scheme that ­— double team it - and teams started doing that early in the season, I didn’t really shoot jump shots then but now these past couple of games I’m shooting with confidence and showing that I can extend my game,” he said.

The Hawks held a 36-28 lead at halftime, after which the Bulldogs began chipping away.

In a game often played above the rim by tall and athletic teens — the Bulldogs executed a perfect alley-oop — it was the Hawks’ shortest player who stood tall.

After the Bulldogs got to within 43-42 with less than 15 minutes to play, 5-6 Tyler Tsui drained a three-pointer from the corner in front of the Hawks’ bench, sending teammates into a frenzy and making the score 46-42. Tsui later drew an offensive foul and, with 7 minutes, 17 seconds left, made both free throws to extend the lead to 58-52 after getting fouled while driving to the basket.

“I’m playing the game; doing my role; getting it done,” Tsui said.

“He’s a fighter,” coach Damon James said. “I have all the confidence in the world for him to make shots, make plays, make the right decisions.”

After the Bulldogs made a shot inside, Heffner hit two buckets inside and Huibregtse hit a jumper to extend the lead to 64-54 with 4:18 left. The game never got closer than eight the rest of the way.

It remained a tense battle, especially down low, the entire way. It was a case of familiarity breeding contempt in two different ways for the Hawks.

“They all know each other, growing up playing each other for a long time, that’s where that emotion comes from,” James said. “It’s been getting a little chippy in practice, only having two games in 14 days. I thought that they were ready to take that out on somebody else. They displayed with a lot of grit, a lot of heart - all the things we embrace in our culture that contribute to winning.”

J.P. Benzschawel, standing 6-6, battled for 10 rebounds and scored eight points. Two came at the end of the first half after the Hawks missed three straight three-pointers but tapped the ball out each time for offensive rebounds. Jacob Aleknavicius went 4-for-7 on three-pointers for 12 points.

“He’s grown into his role. He’s feeling more confident,” James said of Aleknavcius.

Huibregtse, the Hawks’ leading scorer at 24.5 points per game, turned into more of a distributer in the second half.

“When my guys are making shots, I don’t really care how many points I have or how many shots I can get,” he said.

For Cedarburg, Jake Leair scored 12 points and Matthew Pilch 11. Cedarburg went to 6-4 in the North Shore Conference.

“I think they’re a really, really good basketball team. They play extremely hard, they’re well coached. Tonight, we were better, so we’ll take that,” James said.

Tsui will take a double-digit win.

“It feels better to space out a little bit. They get exciting when they’re close, but it’s good to win by this much too,” he said.

The Hawks, 7-3 in the NSC 10-3 overall, were to play at nonconference foe Milwaukee Vincent (9-6) on Tuesday, at West Bend East (4-6 NSC) on Friday and host Homestead (5-5 NSC) on Tuesday, Feb. 4