Grafton girls top conference leader

GRAFTON’S SARAH ALEKNAVICIUS (left) drove to the basket against Catholic Memorial on Dec. 22. Forward Leah Maciejewski (above) looked for a shot under heavy pressure. The Black Hawks held a 12-point second-half lead before running out of gas and losing, 74-61. Photos by Mitch Maersch
The Grafton High School girls’ basketball team rode a roller coaster of emotions on Dec. 22 and 23.
After a last-second home victory Tuesday over North Shore Conference-leading Slinger, the Hawks the next day lost a double-digit second-half lead in falling to powerhouse Catholic Memorial.
In the Hawks’ happy ending, they won, 66-64.
Grafton was up by two points over Slinger with 20 seconds left and promptly turned it over. The Owls took advantage, tying the game on a fast-break layup.
The Owls tried to press and ended up fouling Grafton senior guard Emily Grisar.
That turned out to be the wrong person for Slinger.
The Hawks were in the bonus, meaning Grisar had to make her first free throw to earn a second. She did just that, and drained the second one as well, coach Matt D’Amato said.
The Owls quickly came down and took a quick shot. It missed and the ball got knocked out of bounds. With 7.6 seconds left, the inbounds pass was deflected, and freshman Sarah Aleknavicius ended up with the ball as time expired.
The Hawks had four players score in double digits. Grisar had 17, Aleknavicius had 14, Ella Day had 12 and Allison Garncarz had 11 to go with 11 rebounds.
Grisar had six rebounds, five assists and three steals. Aleknavicius has five rebounds and two blocks, and Day had four rebounds and four assists.
“The thing that was different about it is we were making the extra pass where we were able to get it inside, break the defense down, kick it and then make one more (pass),” D’Amato said.
“So we were getting wide open threes. I tell the team, ‘If we’re getting wide open looks, I’m OK if we shoot 36 threes in a game because we have a good chance of making them.’”
The Hawks went 13-for-36 behind the arc.
The Owls held a 31-20 lead at one point in the first half before the Hawks closed it to 38-35 at the break.
Grafton came all the way back to build a four-point lead with four minutes left. Then, the strategy shifted.
“We started to be a little more careful with our shots. Our run-and-gun kind of turned into get a solid shot,” D’Amato said.
The Hawks’ coaches had to inform the team of the change.
“Otherwise, they’re ready to go and shoot at a moment’s notice, and that’s fine. That’s what we what,” D’Amato said.
“They knocked down key free throws, they held their composure and defensively they got big stops.”
That sharp play continued in the first 21 minutes of the Dec. 22 game against Catholic Memorial before the Crusaders came back for a 74-61 win.
The Hawks held a 35-28 halftime lead and built the advantage to 44-32 with 15 minutes left.
The Crusaders called a timeout, and from there things went south for the Hawks.
The Crusaders went on a 17-0 run before a Garncarz three-pointer from the corner stopped the bleeding, cutting the lead to 49-47.
Crusader Mal Eberhardt answered with a three-pointer, and the Hawks never got closer than three points the rest of the way. The Crusaders turned up the defensive pressure and began making shots, gaining confidence with each one.
Worse for the Hawks, they lost senior guard Morgan Ruona to a leg injury with just less than eight minutes to play. The Hawks trailed, 57-51, at the time.
“When Morgan goes down, that isn’t a good morale boost,” D’Amato said.
The Hawks couldn’t stop forward Alyssa Nimz. At 6 feet, 1 inch, she is taller than anyone on Grafton’s team, and has the skills to match. Nimz, who has committed to play at Northern Michigan, scored 24 points, grabbed 14 rebounds and made four steals.
“She’s good. In the first half, I thought Ella did a very good job. When we were able to front her, they were having a difficult time getting it inside,” D’Amato said of Nimz. “But the thing is she’s so strong and she’s so tall that it takes a toll on you to try to front that the entire game.”
Crusader Grace Lomen had 24 points and 16 rebounds.
The second half spoiled a solid performance early.
“We were in the driver’s seat. They upped the intensity and they upped the physicality,” D’Amato said.
“Honestly, I think we ran out of gas in that second half. We emptied the tank last night against Slinger. The effort we had in that first half today was very impressive considering it was less than a 24-hour turnaround.”
Garncarz led the Hawks with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Day had 11 points and six rebounds. Maddy Wille had 10 points and five rebounds. Leah Maciejewski scored seven points and Aleknavicius and Savannah James each had six.
D’Amato said he knew playing Catholic Memorial would be tough, and that’s exactly what he wanted.
“That’s the intention when you schedule teams like this. Our non-conference schedule is really tough. I believe by playing good teams you’re only going to make yourself better,” he said.
The Hawks, 4-4 in the NSC and 5-6 overall, were slated to play at Kewaskum on Wednesday, play at Slinger (6-2) on Tuesday, Jan. 5, and host Nicolet (3-5) on Friday, Jan. 8.
D’Amato said he wants to feed off of the Slinger victory.
“It’s a confidence boost because it kind of tells our girls we can beat anybody. If we can beat Slinger, there’s no one that we can’t compete with. That’s a good feeling going into the second round through conference,” he said.
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