Turnovers are for eating, not for basketball

As Grafton High School girls’ basketball coach Matt D’Amato put it, “you’re not going to win many games with 29 turnovers.”

Last Saturday against Brookfield East was one of the many.

The Black Hawks lost, 50-43, to the non-conference opponent.

Senior Julia Place scored 11 points, one of 10 Hawks who scored, but then the tally dropped to five points from senior Lexi Hilgrart.

“They took 10 or 11 more shots than we did. They didn’t outrebound us. We just turned the ball over,” D’Amato said.

The Spartans’ ran a trapping press as soon as the Hawks crossed half court.

“We had a lot of unforced errors,” D’Amato said. “We ended up starting to figure it out in the second half, but we came out of halftime flat.”

Despite the turnovers, the Hawks and Spartans were tied, 26-26, at the break.

The Spartans started the second half on a 7-0 run and the Hawks turned the ball over on six straight possessions.

Ellie Grisar later drained a three-pointer to cut the lead to 34-32, but the Spartans responded by making a shot while being fouled. They made enough free throws down the stretch to hold on.

Ella Day was in foul trouble and Allison Garncarz played with two fingers taped together after spraining one last Thursday.

D’Amato said the team’s goal is to hold opponents to under 45 points and the Hawks were on pace for that for most of the game.

“Defensively, we did what we wanted to do,” he said.

He praised Morgan Ruona’s defense on quick freshman guard Annika Pluemer, who scored 16 points.

“Morgan kept her under control,” D’Amato said.

The Hawks, 3-4 in the North Shore Conference and 4-5 overall, were to host defending conference champ Slinger (6-1 NSC) on Tuesday and play at Nicolet (3-4) on Friday.