Young Grafton star begins to shine

As a freshman, Michael McNabb, Jr., started with four seniors last season. Now, he has soared to become the best player on the Grafton High School boys’ basketball team.

The sophomore led the Black Hawks to an overtime win over one rival, a solid victory over another and topped it off with a tight win over a talented nonconference opponent all in one week.

McNabb started with 20 points on 9-for-18 shooting, along with seven rebounds and five steals, in a 70-63 overtime win at home over Port Washington on Dec. 7 in front of a crowd that was in playoff form.

Three days later in front of similarly charged fans, McNabb netted 34 points in a 61-48 home win over Cedarburg.

McNabb went 7-for-10 on three-pointers — even a white-hot percentage for two-point shots — and 5-for-11 inside the arc, along with making three of four free throws. He added 12 rebounds and five steals.

On Saturday, McNabb poured in 29 points in a 51-47 win over Milwaukee Hamilton at Milwaukee Washington in the Ron Glaser Invite. He went 7-for-14 on two-pointers and 12-for-14 on free throws.

“Mike’s a competitor. It doesn’t take much to fuel him,” Grafton coach Damon James said.

Hawks survive scare from Pirates

Against an improved and fired-up Port team, the Hawks were down, 47-38, with less than seven and a half minutes to play, but battled back to take a 56-53 lead with two minutes, 19 seconds left.

McNabb had seven points in the 20-6 run. Jonathan Blaubach had six and Juan Guerrero Hernandez, Jr., had four.

Another bucket by Hernandez extended the lead, but Port’s Patrick Lippe hit a three-pointer to close it to 58-56.

Hernandez hit one of two free throws, and Port’s Ryan Burmesch made a shot inside to make it 59-58.

Grafton’s Bennett Hildebrand missed two free throws with 16.2 seconds left, and Port’s Matt Esselmann got fouled in the lane with 5.1 ticks left.

As the Grafton student section shrieked and Port’s bench players silently locked arms, Esselmann drained the first free throw to tie the game.

The second fell short. Pirate Brady Fleischmann grabbed the rebound but couldn’t keep his feet and traveled.

Grafton called timeout with 2.5 seconds left.

Hernandez took the inbounds pass and made his way up court. He unleashed a buzzer-beater just inside half court from the left side that bounced off the backboard and rim but didn’t fall through the hoop.

In the four-minute overtime period, the Pirates took a 63-60 lead on an inside bucket by Brady Fleischmann and a free throw by Matt Esselmann.

Chase Norton drained a clutch three-pointer from the corner with a hand in his face to tie the game with 2:36 left.

Hernandez gave Grafton the lead for good with a drive and bucket with 88 ticks left, and McNabb scored inside with less than a minute to play to push the lead to 67-63. He later made one of two free throws.

A Norton pull-up jumper with 19 seconds left was the final basket of the game.

“We didn’t lose our confidence. We didn’t lose the edge that we had. We kept grinding it out and kept pushing,” McNabb said.

Norton had 13 points and went 3-for-5 on three-pointers.

“I didn’t shoot very well last game. I went in the gym and practiced my shots. I wasn’t finishing before,” he said.

On the overtime three-pointer, “It was a great feeling knocking that down. It was a great moment,” he said.

For Port, Esselmann had 20 points on 7-for-13 shooting. He was 4-for-6 at the free throw line and 2-for-5 on three-pointers, and he had four steals.

Burmesch had 11 points and seven rebounds. Kenyon Davis had 10 points. Patrick Lippe had seven and Fleischmann had six, along with 10 rebounds.

Port coach Brian Hebein praised a host of players for their efforts, including Esselmann.

“I think the success he had in football gave him a lot of confidence. He’s learning how to be a competitor, and he’s pulling it all together by being a willing defender. We count on him a lot now for scoring,” he said.
Fleischmann, Hebein said, was “phenomenal” on defense and in rebounding. “You almost can’t take him off the floor.”

He also liked the effort of Davis and his couple of big buckets off the bench.

For Grafton, Hernandez had 11 points. Hildebrand had nine, including a few buckets that kept it close early, and Johnathan Blaubach had eight points and seven rebounds.

James said he was happy to extend the game, especially when his team came from behind. Then, he said, “the main thing was to execute and to finish on the defensive side of the ball because we weren’t doing that. We were allowing them too many second chances.”

In overtime, Hebein said, “It just kind of boiled down to who took care of the basketball better in that final four minutes and made a couple of shots.”

The game remained close in the first half until the Hawks went on a 9-3 run to take a 28-21 lead.

Port fought back to tie the game at 28 at halftime. Esselmann hit a jumper, Kenyon Davis hit a three-pointer and Fleischmann scored inside on a nice pass from Esselmann in the 7-0 run.

McNabb, Hawks take down Cedarburg early

In an almost Michael Jordanesque performance, McNabb scored 13 of his team’s first 15 points in less than eight minutes to start the game last Friday.

Most of the buckets weren’t on catch-and-shoot plays. McNabb often created for himself.

“After I hit that first one, I just stayed aggressive. My teammates found me. I thought I made good reads,” McNabb said as Blaubach strolled out of the locker room and yelled, “He’s hot! He’s hot!”

Two of McNabb’s three three-pointers came from the right wing in a 33-second span. After hitting the first, he dribbled to the spot and made another shot.

“It didn’t really matter. It’s just where I was at the time. I was just letting it fly,” he said  “I just kept the rhythm going, and shots fell from there.”

“Obviously, Michael helped ignite that from the offensive side,” James said. “He was in a zone early. But more importantly, defensively our energy and guarding the ball kind of set the tone.”

The Hawks were up, 31-20, at halftime and extended the lead to 53-33 with less than eight minutes to go before the Bulldogs cut it to 56-46 with less than two minutes to play.

“We just did a horrible job executing down the stretch,” James said.

Norton had 12 points.

Jack Dykstra led the Bulldogs with 15. Jacob Fries had 11. It was Cedarburg’s first loss of the season.

Grafton survives rough start

The Hawks came out flat on Saturday and fell behind, 10-0, to Milwaukee Hamilton.

“You could tell our guys were on a win hangover from the night before, which was expected,” James said.

They came back to knot the game at 19 by halftime, then went on their own 10-0 run to take a 31-21 lead.

But the edge closed to 45-44.

The Hawks hit their free throws down the stretch to hang on.

Behind McNabb’s 29, Hernandez had nine and Hildebrand had seven. Zach Brace had two points and eight rebounds.

Norton and Blaubach, James said, did well in defending Hamilton’s best player. Demarion Burch was held to 16 points, nine below his average.

Grafton (4-1) was to play at Whitefish Bay (2-3) on Tuesday, host Nicolet (3-1) on Friday and play at West Bend East (2-2) on Tuesday, Dec. 21.

Port drops home game to Slinger

The Pirates fell behind Slinger, 29-21, at halftime in a 47-32 home loss last Friday.

Burmesch had 16 points on 7-for-12 shooting. Esselmann had seven and Lippe had six.

Andrew Beers had 16 points for Slinger.

Port (1-4) was to play at Cedarburg (3-1) on Tuesday, host Homestead (4-1) on Friday and play at Whitefish Bay on Tuesday, Dec. 21.