Grafton girls hit the skids

The Grafton High School girls’ basketball team topped its rival for the season sweep on Jan. 12, but the rest of the week didn’t go as well.

The Black Hawks lost at Brookfield East, 79-46, on Jan. 13, and then at West Bend West, 53-42, last Friday.

A bright spot came from the development of freshman guard Savannah James, who led or tied for the team lead in scoring in all three games.

Against West, James scored 11 points, and Ella Day had 10. Freshman Sarah Aleknavicius had seven points and eight rebounds, and senior Allison Garncarz had seven points and seven rebounds before leaving the game with three minutes left due to a shoulder injury.

“That was an emotional toll because she was our lone senior left,” coach Matt D’Amato said.

The Hawks already had lost their other senior, Morgan Ruona, to a knee injury before Christmas.

The Hawks played the Spartans, tied for first in the North Shore Conference at 9-3, close for the first half, only down 24-22.

In the second, West bumped the lead to 10 before Grafton stopped the bleeding.

But D’Amato said his team’s defense improved from the previous game.

“I was proud of how we were able to shut down Bella Baker,” he said. “We were not fouling, playing tough.”

West’s Lexi Williams had 16 points, and Ellie Meurer had 11. Kira Guse had nine. Baker, who averages 11.2 points per game, was held to four.

The Hawks’ offense struggled from the outside and couldn’t get inside West’s zone defense.

At Brookfield East (10-4), the Hawks fell behind early and never recovered. It was 37-22 at halftime.

“We came out insanely flat. It did not look good,” D’Amato said.

James came off the bench to replace guard Emily Grisar, who got in foul trouble, and scored 22 points on 6-for-12 shooting from the field, 3-for-4 on three-pointers and 7-for-10 on free throws.

“I looked for someone to handle the ball. She came out aggressive, was attacking the hoop. She handled the pressure beautifully,” D’Amato said.

Day had six points and eight rebounds, and Garncarz had eight rebounds.

For Brookfield East, Annika Pluemer had 18 points and Paige Platz had 15.

At Port, the Hawks took a 32-7 lead into halftime on their way to a 56-27 win.

They used sharp ball movement and spacing to get open shots and played tough inside, but struggled to find the basket in the second half.

“I’ve heard all the excuses under the sun of depth perception and all this other stuff. I think we just need to get in the gym and shoot some more. Eventually, they’ll start falling,” D’Amato said.

He was happy with his team’s passing

“We wanted to keep the turnovers down. We still had a couple of careless ones we probably could live without,” he said.

Defensively, the Hawks made it hard on the Pirates, even when inbounding the ball.

“If you can get a whole bunch of deflections without picking up silly fouls, eventually those will turn into steals,” D’Amato said.

Garncarz had 12 points and 12 rebounds. James had 12 points. Ashley Weir had eight points and seven rebounds. Ava Wilmanns had six points and six rebounds, and Julia Marti had six rebounds. Aleknavicius had four assists. Gabi Haldeman had six points.

For Port, guard Tiana Davis had nine points. Sydney Hoeft had seven, and Abby Fritsh had five.

Last Friday, Port tied its season high in points but lost to 10-6 Hartford, 80-35.

Davis scored 16.

Hartford’s Maci Meyer had 27 points.

Last Saturday, Port lost to 8-5 Whitefish Bay, 53-13.

Allie Swietlik led 10 Blue Dukes who scored with 13 points. Port’s stats weren’t available.

Grafton, 7-10, hosts 10-6 Cedarburg on Friday, plays at 2-10 West Bend East on Tuesday, Jan. 26, and at 5-9 Nicolet on Wednesday, Jan. 27.

Port, 0-13, hosts West Bend East on Friday and 11-5 Slinger on Tuesday, Jan. 26.