Grafton girls cruise past Port on special night

The Grafton High School girls’ basketball team celebrated senior night last Friday with an easy victory over an overmatched opponent.

Thirteen Black Hawks scored in a 76-30 shellacking of winless Port Washington.

Competitive game or not, Hawk seniors, Allison Garncarz and Morgan Ruona smiled as they confirmed beating one of their North Shore Conference rivals is always fun.

“For sure,” Ruona said.

“Oh yeah. Always,” Garncarz said.

Garncarz scored a team-high 15 points in 19 minutes on 6-for-12 shooting and grabbed 12 rebounds.

Emily Grisar hit three three-pointers in a stretch of two and a half minutes late in the second half — including banking in one — and scored 11 points in 13 minutes of playing time. She went 3-for-5 from long range.

Freshman Savannah James and junior Julia Marti each scored eight points. Ella Day had six. Ruona, Ashley Weir and Ava Wilmanns each had five.

Freshman Sarah Aleknavicius scored four. Olivia Dunfee had three and Gabi Haldeman, Maddy Wille and Leah Maciejewski each had two.

Port Washington senior guard Tiana Davis scored a game-high 16 points and kept the Pirates in it early. Davis scored her team’s first six points, tallying buckets on a drive to the basket and on a fast break after a steal.

Davis’ two free throws brought Port to within 11-6 with 10 minutes, 44 seconds left in the first half.

A Hawks’ 19-0 run the next five and a half minutes put the game away.

Garncarz, a 5 feet, 10-inch forward, had nine of those points, either hitting shots inside or in transition.

Weir scored the final five in the run on a turnaround shot inside and then hitting a shot while being fouled and making the free throw.

Port senior guard Abby Fritsch stopped the bleeding with a free throw to make it 30-7 with 4:30 left in the half.

Wilmanns hit a shot at the buzzer to make it 40-13 at the break.

“It’s hard to have solid focus in a game like this so making sure you’re paying attention to the details and executing was important,” Grafton coach Matt D’Amato said. “When it comes down to what we’re looking to achieve in the game, it was still making sure that we executed our side properly.”

Garncarz said, “It was nice and relaxing, kind of, to just play our game and have fun out there.”

D’Amato praised his two seniors.

“They’re very hard working. They’re very competitive. They’re not complainers. They go out there and they do their business in a very timely manner and a workman-like manner, and I appreciate everything that they’ve done, especially with the culture for this year,” he said.

The Hawks’ good fortune didn’t continue on Saturday, when they lost to a top-notch opponent in Laconia, 54-45.

The Spartans started the game hot.

“They made shots at an unbelievable clip,” D’Amato said. “At the end of the first half, they starting getting tired and we were able to shrink the lead.”

The Hawks were down, 31-26, and “I felt good where we were at halftime,” D’Amato said.

Then the Spartans got hot again at the beginning of the second half.

At one point, the Hawks were down, 46-39, having missed four straight three-pointers. They had to foul to try to get back in it at the end.

“They’re a very good team,” D’Amato said.

“The thing that makes them so good is they don’t make mistakes. They play a very clean basketball game. It kind of rubbed off on us. Nine turnovers, better than we’ve been doing. There was a lot of learning.”

The Hawks went 4-for-32 from the field. Garncarz didn’t hit a field goal but grabbed eight rebounds, and Grisar only hit one but snagged seven rebounds.

Ruona led the Hawks with 10 points. James and Weir each had seven, but Weir went down with an ankle injury and will miss some time, D’Amato said.

Laconia’s senior guards Haley Rens scored 16 points and Emma Mulder, scored 10.

The Hawks went 1-2 on the week, after losing at Hartford, 72-63, on Dec. 8.

The Orioles jumped out to a 42-28 lead by halftime.

Five Hawks scored in double figures. Garncarz had 13 points and Weir had 12 on 6-for-12 shooting. Day, Alkenavicius and James each had 10.

Grisar grabbed 10 rebounds and Aleknavicius and Weir each had eight. Day and Garncarz each had seven.

Hartford guard Maci Meyer, who has committed to play basketball at McKendree University, scored 20 points on shooting 5-for-14 from the field and 10-for-15 from the free throw line. She also grabbed 12 rebounds.

Riley Resheske scored 13 points, and Kailyn Knudson and Kacy Kratz each scored 12.

Hartford is 5-2 in the NSC and trails 6-1 Slinger for first place in the conference.

The Hawks, 4-5, were scheduled to host Slinger on Tuesday and nonconference foe Catholic Memorial on Wednesday.

Port lost on Dec. 15 at Cedarburg, 72-34. Bulldogs Ella Rollison had 16 points, and Claire Diener had 14. Port stats weren’t available.

The Pirates, 0-7, was to play at Homestead (3-3) on Tuesday, before hosting the Highlanders on Tuesday, Jan. 5.