Port basketball teams lose at WB East

The Port Washington High School boys’ basketball team survived a sloppy first half and was in position for a buzzer-beater at West Bend East last Friday.

Down, 51-50, with 15.8 seconds to play, the Pirates called timeout to set up a play.

They looked around and called another timeout with 4.3 seconds left.

After that, Nolan Mueller took the half-court inbounds pass and launched a three-pointer that bounced off the rim. Sun T.J. Simpson went high to get the rebound as time expired.

Coach Brian Hebein said there were three offensive options on the play and that he figured Mueller would be the open one.

“I think we needed to pass it just a half second earlier because he was going to curl toward the rim, and then he kind of had to bounce out, and that’s why he had to shoot it a little further,” he said.

It was nearly a comeback victory on the road for the Pirates, who erased a 43-34 deficit with 10 minutes, 16 seconds to play in the game.

Adam Baierl hit a jumper and then a shot inside. Mueller hit a shot and then Jake Lippe banked in one from point-blank range to bring the Pirates to within 43-42 with 4:32 to play.

The teams then traded baskets with the Suns pulling out to a three-point lead and the Pirates trimming the deficit to one until 40 seconds to play.

Down 50-48, Mueller tied the game with a shot inside the paint.

With 21.6 seconds left, Tamai McKoy-Jackson picked up his fifth foul going after a steal. Sun Joe Salamone missed the first free throw but knocked down the second one to give the Suns a one-point lead that would hold up.

Mueller ended up with a team-high 22 points on 9-for-12 shooting from the field.

“Nolan had a good game. We’ve been asking him to do more in practice as far as bringing the ball up, just taking some of the load off of Adam (Baierl) and him having to handle the basketball. We’ll see where it goes,” Hebein said.

Baierl had 16 points on 8-for-13 shooting from the field.

The Pirates fell behind 17-5 barely six minutes into the game before closing the gap to 24-20 at halftime.

“We turned the ball over 16 times in the first half. That’s pretty much the story of the game,” Hebein said.

“We gave away so many opportunities, but still we’re only down four. To be in the game turning it over that many times is completely incredible.”

He chalked much of that up to tough defense and the rebounding of Jake Lippe, who had 12 for the game.

“Jake Lippe was a man on the boards tonight. He really held us in there in the first half. He was just eaten’ it up,” Hebein said.

The Pirates shot 1-for-6 at the free-throw line to the Suns’ 16-for-26.

“We need to be attacking more,” Hebein said.

He praised the play of Marcus Schmit and Brandon Kelling off the bench, who helped fill in for Evan Lilly, Lippe and McKoy-Jackson when they got in foul trouble.

“Those guys gave us great energy on the defensive end of the floor, did some really good things for us,” he said.

Simpson led the Suns with 22 points. East moved to 5-1 in the North Shore Conference. Port went to 3-4.

On Dec. 18, the Pirates used a 42-25 second half to roll at Slinger, 63-43.Mueller scored 16 points, Evan Lilly had 15 and McKoy Jackson had 10. Baierl had nine points and Lippe had eight.

On Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the Pirates play in the Claw Classic in South Carolina.

West Bend East 55, Port Washington 39

With their top scorer on vacation, the Port girls needed to look for another leader against West Bend East last Friday.

They found one in Kaytlin Kassens.

The senior forward had the best game of her career in scoring 22 points, with most of her 10 baskets coming in the paint under pressure from Suns’ defenders.

“She’s really been coming on the last couple of weeks. Obviously, that’s been her breakout game since she’s been playing varsity basketball,” coach Jason Wahl said.

“That’s an awesome job by her and we’ll keep looking to get more out of her.”

Despite the effort, the Pirates couldn’t quite get over an early deficit and lost 55-39, in their bid for their first victory of the season. It was the Suns’ first conference victory.

Sun Aubrey Larson matched Kassens’ 22 points and got enough help. Megan Lemke scored 10 and Lizzy Bagley six.

Offensive rebounding hurt the Pirates. The Suns often had second and third chances at points.

“That’s kind of been the theme for us the past couple of weeks. We’ve got to shore those things up,” Wahl said. “We can keep ourselves in some games here and be really competitive. It’s just one fundamental skill.”

Pirate Regan Melin scored eight points, including hitting two three-pointers. Ella Bierman added five.

While the Pirates started by digging a 20-6 hole with 5:23 left in the first half, they battled back to cut the lead to 32-26 with 11:48 to play. They just couldn’t come all the way back. The Suns went on an

11-4 run to take a 13-point lead with less than eight minutes left.

“That’s a big thing for us, getting off to a good start,” Wahl said.

The Pirates trailed 20-12 at halftime and went 1-for-7 at the free-throw line to that point. They were 4-for-13 for the game.

On Dec. 18, the Pirates lost to defending conference champion Slinger at home, 72-21. Melin scored nine points on three three-pointers.

The Pirates trailed 41-9 at halftime. Ten Owls scored, led by Kacie O’Hearn and Ramsey McGraw with 15 points each.

Now 0-8 in the conference and 0-10 overall, the Pirates play at non-conference opponent Ozaukee at 7:15 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 3, and at West Bend West on Tuesday, Jan. 8.

Wahl said the team had a couple of good practices last week and hopes that keeps going into the new year.

“Our enthusiasm level is so important. Obviously, it’s tough where we’re at right now, but we’ve got a good group of girls to keep fighting the rest of the way,” he said.

“We know where we’re at. We’ve seen almost every team in the conference. We just have to worry about ourselves and what we can do as a team to keep getting better.”