Port comes up just short at home

Close games were common for the Port Washington High School boys’ basketball team this season, and they came out on the wrong end of one in the opening round of the playoffs March 1.

The playoff ranking system had the No. 8-seeded Pirates hosting No. 9 West Bend West five days after facing them in the regular season finale, and Port lost both games by slim margins.

On March 1, the Spartans edged the Pirates, 67-62, to end Port’s season.

Junior guard Kenyon Davis had 22 points. Junior guard Matt Esselmann and forward Ryan Burmesch each had 11, and senior guard Aedan Egan had eight.

“They were able to take advantage on the boards. The second-chance points are what ended up hurting us,” coach Brian Hebein said.

Late in the game, a Spartan missed a three-pointer and a teammate tipped the rebound back to him. The second time, he made the shot.

“Once again, we were right there. We did a lot of positive things offensively. We were moving the ball around and doing some decent stuff,” Hebein said.

While the Pirates scrambled to come back at the end, the Spartans iced the game at the line, making 12 of 14 free throws.

For West, Jayden Omernick had 22 points and six rebounds. Riley O’Connell had 16 points and five rebounds. Carson Bauer had 12 points, Ethan Lebeck had eight and Jacob Wagner had seven points and six assists.

It was the final game for Port seniors Egan, Patrick Lippe, Brayden Thompson, Brady, Fleischmann, Mikey Ross, Nolan Voeller and Max Reyes.

“They’re a great group of guys. They did a nice job this year with their leadership and team camaraderie,” Hebein said.

Their last game was the Pirates’ 10th of the season decided by five points or less or via overtime, including the last regular season game against West, a 65-61 loss.

They were 1-9 in those contests, only notching a huge comeback win at Slinger, 69-66 in overtime, on Jan. 28. They lost in overtime at Grafton, 70-63, on Dec. 7 and to Nicolet — the second best team in the North Shore Conference — in overtime, 78-76, on Jan. 11.

Port finished 4-21 overall and in last place in the North Shore Conference at 2-16.

Injuries hurt the Pirates all season, which caused a struggle in putting together a consistent lineup.

Egan missed time twice with a fractured shooting hand, Lippe sat out with an ankle injury and gutted it out last week on adrenaline, Hebein said. Ross had a setback in recovering from a torn ACL last season.

“The guys handled themselves pretty well considering all the different things that were in play throughout the season,” Hebein said.

But the future is bright. Davis and Esselmann, the team’s two leading scorers, return, as does 6 feet, 5-inch Burmesch, the team’s tallest player, leading rebounder and one of its best defenders who regularly guarded opponents’ top offensive players.

“We’ve got some pieces to build off of with these guys coming back. They got a lot of minutes this year and that’s going to bode well,” Hebein said.