Karrels’ clutch treys win the day for Pirates

“Too many cookies” is what Port Washington High School junior forward Grady Karrels said about the boys’ basketball team’s slow start against Two Rivers in the Oostburg Holiday Tournament on Friday.

By the end of the contest, however, Karrels cooked up a few sweet plays in leading the Pirates to a 79-70 overtime victory.

Karrels drained a three-pointer with 23.1 seconds left to bring Port to within 69-67. Port coach Garrett Hoffmann called timeout with plans to foul the Raiders. Port executed, and Raider Carson Kadow, who led his squad with 23 points, made one of two free throws.

Port hustled down court and Colton Struckman found himself alone on a drive to the basket. He missed the open layup, but hustled for the rebound and dished to Karrels on the left wing.

Karrels quickly fired and drained the shot, tying the game at 70 with 4.4 seconds left.

“I saw Colton get that rebound. There’s not much time left. My feet weren’t even set and I just had to chuck,” Karrels said.

“Good hustle by Colton and staying together as a team down the stretch is the only reason I was able to shoot that.”

Kadow missed in the final seconds, and from there it was all Pirates.

Port outscored the Raiders, 9-0, in overtime.

Senior guard Josh Arnold scored the first four points, first on a baseline drive. Struckman then stole a pass to the post. Karrels drove and dished to Arnold inside.

Port then went 5-for-6 on free throws. Struckman went 1-for-2 and Karrels and Eamonn Tetzlaff each went 2-for-2.

The Raiders went 0-for-3 on free throws in overtime.

The Pirates outscored the Raiders 15-1 in the final 4 minutes, 33 seconds of regulation and 24-1 in the game’s final 8:33.

“It was awesome,” Arnold said.

“It was pretty fun,” Karrels said.

By the time they forced overtime, the Pirates knew the game was over.

“We’re going to finish it,” Arnold said of the mentality. “Garrett got on us in the huddle as well and he said that we needed to finish it.”

Just getting to overtime looked unlikely even as Port mounted a comeback after trailing 36-24 at halftime.

Hoffmann let his team know his thoughts on the sluggish start during halftime.

“We just talked to guys about competing. It looked like we were on Christmas break when we started,” he said.

“We felt like we had more size and we were more athletic. A lot of it was just communication and stuff we had gone over in practice, which is the most frustrating part. Just getting back to what we do and what we know.”

The Pirates started to inch their way back, but as soon as they got close the Raiders would drill a three-pointer that stretched the lead again. Port faced its largest deficit of the half, 69-55, with 4:33 left.

Then the game flipped.

Arnold made two free throws, then Aiden Mitchell grabbed an offensive rebound, made the putback while being fouled and sank the free throw. Struckman cut to the basket for two points. Karrels had eight points in the 15-1 run to end regulation.

“Grady hit two big threes at the end there. I’m really happy to see him start hitting shots consistently,” Hoffmann said. “He’s done that all year, but I think his confidence is definitely growing.”

Arnold led Port with 23 points, including three first-half three-pointers that kept the team in the game. In the second half, most of his points came on drives inside. Karrels had 13 points.

“Josh getting downhill and getting to the rim creating for others has been awesome,” Hoffmann said. “I think they both could have competed harder. I got on both of them, called them out in the first half. They keep improving every game and it’s good to see.”

Mitchell had 13 points. Kyle Uselding and Tetzlaff each had seven.

Hoffmann would have liked the second-half effort for the entire game.

“We talk about that a lot — practice habits — if we’re getting after it during practice or if we’re going up and down and we’re kind of switching it on and off. We don’t want to be a team that does that. We’ve got to work on that for sure,” he said.

In the tourney title game on Saturday, Oostburg beat Port, 72-58. Oostburg led, 30-21, at halftime.

Jack Loirer led Port with 13 points. Tetzlaff had 10, Karrels had nine, Arnold had eight and Uselding had seven.

“Early foul trouble and some timely turnovers in the mid-second half did us in,” Hoffmann said.

“I’m proud of the effort compared to Friday’s game. Josh and Grady have been consistent all year, Eamonn and Kyle saw some shots start to fall, and it was really fun to see some other guys step up like Jack Lorier and Aiden Mitchell.”

Oostburg junior Cade Dirske, the Big East Conference South Player of the Year last season, had 29 points and went 10-for-13 on free throws.

Port, 4-6 overall and 2-4 in the North Shore Conference, hosts rival Grafton (1-6 overall) on Tuesday, Jan. 7.

Grafton hosts Brookfield Academy on Friday, Jan. 3.