Pirates take out near miss vs. Hartford on visiting Marathon

By MITCH MAERSCH

Ozaukee Press staff

The Port Washington High School boys’ basketball team didn’t let a close loss bother it for long.

After a deep three-pointer nearly fell at the buzzer in a 56-53 loss to Hartford, the Pirates came back 48 hours later and smoked Marathon, 80-65.

Port held a 37-33 halftime lead before outscoring Marathon by 11 in the second half.

The Pirates wanted to get out and run to neutralize the impact of 6-feet, 9-inch Red Raider Grant Warren.

Pirate Josh Arnold led the running game. He scored 15 points, had 11 rebounds and eight assists, helping Kenyon Davis to net 31 and Matt Esselmann to score 19.

“He really played well, and it was just awesome to see with the pass-first mentality getting the ball up the floor quickly to Matt and Kenyon and getting easy looks,” coach Brian Hebein said. “It’s really cool to see Josh add that extra element for us.”

Warren still led Marathon with 21 points, but Port’s transition game was enough, along with forward Ryan Burmesch’s defense on the Red Raiders’ big man.

“We kind of let Ryan go and said ‘You’ve got him,’” Hebein said. “He did a good job there.”

Burmesch scored 10 points.

Against Hartford on Jan. 5, the Pirates let one slip away at the free-throw line, going 7-for-18.

“In a tight game, that’s going to be a huge difference maker. We learned from it. Guys are going to put the work in and get back at the line and start knocking those down,” Hebein said.

Port had a chance to tie late. The Orioles knew what play was coming, and Esselmann had to take a deeper three-pointer than planned at the buzzer. The shot rimmed out.

“It was a close shot. It just didn’t fall,” Hebein said.

Davis had 20 points, Burmesch had 13 and Esselmann had 10.

Port held a 25-24 halftime lead in a back-and-forth game.

“We did some really good things in the game. We ran good offense. We got some stuff out of the press on them,” Hebein said.

“Hartford plays hard. Their defense is tough. They don’t give you anything easy.”

Bryce Duhr had 18 points for the Orioles.

Port got guard Ben Fritsch back from an ankle injury sustained in the last game of the football season. Hebein said he will slowly be worked into the lineup.

“He’s just a hard-nosed defender. He’s a guy you can count on to lock somebody up, and he’s going to be in the right spots for the help,” he said.

Port, 5-7 overall and 1-6 in the North Shore Conference, played at Nicolet on Tuesday, Dec. 10, and hosts West Bend West (0-7) on Friday, Jan. 13.