Heartbreakers befall Port boys

The Port Washington High School boys’ basketball team got a boost it desperately needed with the return of Mikey Ross last week, but that wasn’t enough for the still-banged-up Pirates to win two close games.

On Friday at Hartford, Ross saw action exactly one year after tearing his ACL in Grafton and looked sharp, scoring 19 points on 7-for-12 shooting, including 5-for-8 on three-pointers.

“That was a pretty big moment for him,” coach Brian Hebein said. “He was pretty keyed up. It was good to see him out there.”

But the Orioles prevailed, 67-63.

Junior guard Matt Esselmann had 21 points on 8-for-12 shooting and had five rebounds before fouling out on a play in which another Pirate actually committed the foul, Hebein said.

Kenyon Davis scored nine points and had five assists, and forward Ryan Burmesch had eight rebounds and four points.

Port was down, 30-26, at halftime after the Orioles nailed six three-pointers, but bounced back to take a nine-point lead in the second half. A few miscues and continued hot shooting put the Orioles back on top.

That was easier to swallow than Saturday’s 63-62 loss to Kewaskum in the LeRoy Young Tournament in a quiet environment in West Bend’s small gym. Hebein said the floor was slippery, there was no warm-up music or announcements of the starting lineup, and the National Anthem wasn’t played.

Late in the game, Esselmann was covered on an inbounds play, and Ross got the ball and banked in a three-pointer to give Port at 62-61 lead.

With 1.8 seconds left and an Indian dribbling the ball up court, an official blew a whistle for a five-second call, giving Port the ball back. But another official said Kewaskum first called a timeout, and the Indians got to inbound the ball from the side of the court.

The inbounds pass found an Indian, who made a spin move and drained a floater in the lane as the buzzer sounded.

“It was a stinger,” Hebein said.

Esselmann and Davis each had 17 points. Nate Uselding had nine, Ross had eight and Burmesch had seven.

“We only had three turnovers the whole game. We took care of the basketball,” Hebein said.

Ben Fritsch saw time in coming back from injury, as did Patrick Lippe. Port was still missing a few players due to Covid.

Port, 3-9 overall and 1-6 in the North Shore Conference, was to host Nicolet (6-1 NSC) on Tuesday and play at West Bend West (0-7) on Friday and North Scott of Iowa in Wisconsin Dells on Saturday.

Grafton boys are learning

The Grafton boys gave up several inches in height to visiting Slinger last Friday, but not much in the way of the inside game in a 54-50 loss.

The Black Hawks only had two fewer rebounds and two fewer points in the paint than the Owls.

“We’ve just got to make more plays for each other, find more ways to win,” coach Damon James said.

The Hawks tried to claw their way back into the game, but the Owls maintained leads of six to eight points until the Hawks scored in the final second.

Michael McNabb, Jr., had 20 points and seven rebounds. Bennett Hildebrand had 13 points, and freshman point guard Juan Guererro Hernandez, Jr., had 10 points and seven rebounds.

The loss comes after a 72-64 overtime win over Racine Lutheran the week before. Grafton held a 39-19 at halftime before Lutheran forced the extra period.

“We have a group that’s learning what it means to win, playing consistently on both ends of the floor. We just have to keep plugging away at it,” James said.

The Hawks, 5-6 overall and 3-4 in the NSC, were to play at Homestead (7-0) on Tuesday and host Hartford (1-6) on Friday.