Grafton girls top Baker-less WB West

It didn’t get any points from its bench, but the Grafton High School girls’ basketball team didn’t need any at West Bend West last Friday.

The Black Hawks’ starters accounted for all their points in a 58-53 North Shore Conference victory.

Junior Lexi Hilgart led the way with 18 points, going 4-for-4 from the field and 3-for-5 on three-pointers.

“Most importantly, Lexi had two assists and no turnovers,” coach Mike Grzesiak said.

Senior point guard Hailey Block scored 14 points, going 6-for-8 from the field. She had five assists and two turnovers.

All-time girls’ leading scorer Hannah Belanger had an off night, shooting 6-for-16 and scoring 12 points, but her teammates did enough to fill the gap.

Mya Masse scored 10 points. Julia Place had five. The Hawks shot 50% from the floor.

“If we can have four girls in double figures and win a basketball game, I’ll take it,” Grzesiak said.

The Spartans were missing their star player Madison Baker, who was on a soccer trip. Julia Buettner led West with 17 points,  going 4-for-8 on three-pointers.

The Hawks trailed toward the end of the first half but never in the second.

A 14 to 15-point edge closed to less than 10 a couple of times, but the Hawks would then push it back to double digits, Grzesiak said.

Toward the end, of the game, the Spartans made some three-pointers to close the difference to five.

The Hawks moved to 7-4 in the NSC (9-5 overall), a half game behind fourth-place West’s 7-3.

The Hawks play at West Bend East (2-9 NSC) on Thursday and at Cedar Grove-Belgium for a non-conference game on Saturday.

They will miss Allison Garncarz, who is out for the rest of the season after injuring her shoulder while diving for a ball in a loss to Slinger on Jan. 8.

Besides that, the Hawks are just dealing with the usual seasonal colds.

“There’s boxes of Kleenex showing up at practice now,” Grzesiak said.