Two hoops wins, two ways to get there

Earning their second Big East Conference victory of the season wasn’t easy for the Cedar Grove-Belgium High School girls’ basketball team.

The Rockets vaulted to a 14-point lead at halftime, 29-15, at Kohler and hung on, 59-49.

Rocket junior Alexis Bahr scored 26 points on 11-for-22 shooting and grabbed seven rebounds.

“She had a really nice game,” coach Mike Bikman, who goes by Coach Bik, said.

The Rockets took advantage of the offensive glass, grabbing at least 25 rebounds, Bik said.

“Our shooting wasn’t the greatest but at least Alexis got the rebound and put them in,” he said.

Tara Schmitz had 10 points and 10 rebounds. Sophie Beightol had nine points and five rebounds. Katelyn Morris had seven points and four rebounds, and Kahleah Knight had six rebounds and three assists. Olivia Bahr had seven rebounds.

The Rockets held a 37-23 lead with 11 and a half minutes left, but the Blue Bombers closed to 47-41 with just more than five minutes to play.

“They gave us a run but we came out playing,” Bik said. “They tried picking up the tempo, and we just did our own speed.”

The Rockets’ press led to 20 points.

“We played good defense. They played hard,” Bik said, praising Knight’s defense on one of the top Blue Bombers’ threats.

On Saturday, the Rockets rolled over Gibralter, 75-40, in a nonconference game.

“Everybody got some confidence coming off the bench,” Bik said.

Eleven Rockets scored. Alexis Bahr, Schmitz and Morris each had 12 points. Bahr had five rebounds and five steals. Schmitz had five rebounds and three assists.

Madilyn Johnson had eight points. Josie Horn had seven points and six rebounds. Natalie Hopeman had seven points. Knight, who saw time at point guard, had six points and four rebounds.

Beightol had five points.

Aubrey Marti had eight steals, five rebounds, four assists and two points. Olivia Bahr had four steals and four rebounds.

The Rockets’ pressure forced 26 steals.

The Rockets, 2-4 in the Big East South Division and 5-6 overall, were to host Hilbert (4-8 overall) on Tuesday, Random Lake (4-2 Big East) on Friday and play at Kewaskum (10-2 overall) on Tuesday, Jan. 18.

“I think we’re coming together as a team. They’re starting to pick stuff up we’ve been trying to teach them,” Bik said. “You can see they’re getting excited.”

Christian, Hartford take it to Port

The Port Washington girls lost at home to Hartford last Friday, 60-34, in the Pirates’ first action since taking second place in their holiday shootout.

Makena Christian led nine Oriole scorers with 31 points. No other Oriole had more than five points.

For Port, 6-feet, 2-inch freshman Lillian Merow scored 15 points. Freshman Paige Scheunemann had six points.

Port was down, 25-14, before being outscored, 35-20, in the second half.

The Pirates, 3-10 overall and 0-7 in the North Shore Conference, were to play at Nicolet (0-7 NSC) on Tuesday and host West Bend East (2-5) on Friday.