Scoring leader earns high accolade

Michael McNabb Jr. came into this basketball season with some high expectations after being the only freshman starter among four seniors last year.

The 6-feet, 4-inch guard met and exceeded them for Grafton High School.

McNabb led the North Shore Conference in scoring —”pretty impressive,” Grafton coach Damon James said — and the race wasn’t even close. He averaged 24.3 points per game. Homestead’s Tim Franks was second at 19.3.

McNabb shot 55.5% from the floor and 35.5% on three-pointers. He made 76.4% of his free throws. Some points came from outside, but more came from slicing and dicing through the lane for contested buckets inside.

At times, he put the offense on his back. He scored eight of Grafton’s final nine points in a 68-63 win at Plymouth in the playoffs.

All that helped earn McNabb one of the unanimous selections on the NSC first team, one year after receiving honorable mention recognition.

“He’s the ultimate competitor. He’s got a competitive drive that fuels him. When others doubt him, it just feeds that drive,” James said.

Despite playing guard, McNabb was fourth in the league in rebounding with 7.8 per game. He was fourth in steals with 1.9 per  game and dished out 2.1 assists per game.

The spark plug that made Grafton go, however, developed another quality.

“Mike’s the ultimate leader. He’s a coach on the floor. I really appreciate that,” James said. “Believe it or not, leadership is a strength.”

McNabb is already looking to improve.

“He’s already putting in the work after our exit interviews. He’s working on things he needs to do to be a complete player,” James said.

Grafton developed a second weapon in the back court in freshman point guard Juan Guerrero Hernandez Jr.

He averaged 11.5 points per game, 14th in the league, and gave out 2.6 assists per game, seventh in the NSC. He shot 49.7% from the floor.

He only stands 6 feet tall, but he used his skill and long arms to grab 4.2 rebounds per game.

That helped him earn NSC honorable mention recognition.

Guerrero Hernandez Jr. had ups and downs like a typical freshman, James said, but “the last couple of games and in the playoffs you could really see the light click for him. He was making the right reads.”

He also showed leadership, despite his age, and the Hawks followed.

“It just shows the character of that young man. He has leadership capabilities,” James said. “It shows guys are open enough in their minds to follow his lead.”

It wasn’t easy for the rest of the team to follow a sophomore in McNabb, either, but both players proved themselves.

“They could hoop and they could back up what they were talking about,” James said.

Grafton finished 6-12 in the NSC, eighth of 10 teams, and 10-16 overall.

Port Washington had several near misses in going 2-16 in the NSC and 4-21 overall, but junior guard Kenyon Davis had a breakout season.

Davis didn’t begin the year in the starting lineup, but after scoring 25 and 15 points in consecutive games while helping the Pirates win a holiday tournament, coach Brian Hebein acted accordingly.

Hebein regularly talked about how hard Davis worked in the offseason to improve, and this year it came together.

Davis averaged 14.9 points per game, fifth in the NSC. He shot 46.8% from the field and made 48.9% of his three-pointers.

He was eighth in the NSC in steals with 1.7 per game and he had 1.6 assists per game and 3.7 rebounds per game.

That helped Davis make the NSC third team.

Davis became Port’s top offensive weapon, either draining shots from the outside or using his quickness and leaping ability to squeeze through and over defenses for points, and he has one year left to hone his skills.