Grafton Basketball Club: News and Announcements

A group of girls from the Grafton Basketball Club recently competed and won a 3 on 3 tournament in Valders, Wisconsin.  They competed against teams from Valders, Kiel, and Manitowoc. Congratulations go to team members: Lily Kadubek, Hannah Belanger, Caitlin Kugi and Chloe Doring.  The GBC team was coached by Mark Belanger and Rory Kadubek. 

WAY TO GO GIRLS.

Mark Belanger

The Grafton 4th grade boys traveled to Lakeland College for a 7 team tournament.  In our pool, were teams from Plymouth, Wisconsin Blizzards (Heim).  In the other pool were Wisconsin Blizzards (Schabo), Sheboygan North, Port Washington, and Kimberly.  

Grafton opened up against Plymouth.  We started out slowly again, and spotted the Plymouth team an 8-0 advantage.  The boys rallied and tied the game at 10 a piece at halftime.  With about 4 minutes left in the game, Grafton was trailing by 5.  The boys went on to score 6 straight points and win the game 18-17.    

Next up was one of the AAU/All-Star teams named Wisconsin Blizzard (Heim).  These teams are a collection of boys from 6-9 different cities/areas.  They will play together for the entire summer.  The first team had 3 boys from the Oshkosh area.  The 4th grade boys started quickly and forced the Blizzard coach into a time out 2 minutes into the game.  We had a 6 point lead at the time.  Grafton lead the whole first half until a Blizzard hit a 3 pointer at the buzzer to tie the score at 11.  Grafton fell behind in the second half by 5, but closed the gap and both teams had shots at the end of regulation, but were tied at 22-22.  Now we went into a two minute overtime, and pressing allowed with 1 minute remaining.  Both teams scored 4 points and continued the exciting game to a 2nd overtime.  Grafton scored twice and shut down the Blizzards to win 30-26 in double overtime and propelled us to the championship game.  

This Blizzard (Schabo) team had 3 boys from the Appleton area on it.  The Blizzard team started quickly and held a 12 point lead at half time 20-8.  Grafton cut the lead to 8 at the start of the second half, but couldn't get any closer.  Grafton fell 41-23, and took second place.  

These were very good teams, and the fact we beat one AAU/All-Star team was tremendous.  It was a great tournament, and a fantastic season.  The boys improved their skills, and increased their on the court experiences throughout the year.  The boys had 8 wins and 4 losses in tournament play this season.  Go practice this summer, and I'll see you next fall.  Thanks to the GBC and all the parents for lugging your kids around. 

A special thank you to Tom Stachurski, Bill Wilkin, and Dan Autey for all their time, and coaching.    

Todd Bennett    

Winter League Rules

Winter League Schedule

Winter League Standings

Jan. 31st the 4th grade boy’s team traveled to Homestead for some round-robin games against Whitefish Bay, Homestead, and Brookfield.  These games were the first of the year for the 4th grade boys.  In the first game Grafton lost a close game 24-31 to Whitefish Bay.  The second game Homestead won 21-13 and the third game the boys played very well during the second half, but lost 23-34 to Brookfield. 

February 7th the boys traveled to Lomira for their first tournament of the year.  The first game was a win over Raymond, 38-21.  The team extended its win streak against a Fond du Lac team named "FACE" 28-14.  The boys were then in a championship game, against Appleton Xavier.  After falling behind 10-4 in the first half, Grafton rallied to tie the score 10-10 at the half.  With 7 seconds to go in the game, and Appleton ahead 18-16, Grafton had a shot to tie, but fell just short.  It was a great tournament and the boys have improved tremendously over the past few weeks.  They placed 2nd at Lomira and all received medals. 

The team’s next tournament is Feb. 28th, at Ozaukee. 

On Sunday, February 15^th the 3^rd grade girl’s team played in Oshkosh.  For most of the girls it was their first tournament experience, and it was amazing to see the girl’s progress throughout the day. 

We opened up against Oakfield; we stayed close early on, but fell 28-12.  Next we played Winneconne.  The game was close the entire way.  We had a 2 point lead inside the final minute when Winneconne scored to tie the game at 12.  We got the ball with 12 seconds left and had to go the length of the court for the win.  After the timeout the girls ran the play to perfection but the shot rimmed out.  Overtime was next.  The first team to score would win. 

On our third possession we drove the elbow and took the shot, it hit the front of the rim and bounced in.  What a sight to see the girls storm the court and celebrate the hard won victory.  We only had 5 minutes to celebrate as Oshkosh was up next.  The Oshkosh team had lost to Oakfield by 2 so we knew we had our hands full.  As expected we came out tired and fell behind 14-2 at the half, but as Pat Summit said after her 1,000^th win “Basketball teaches you to work thru adversity” and that is just what our girls did.  We discovered our offense and added more ball pressure and closed the gap to 18-16 inside the last minute.  We had 2 shots for the tie but did not connect and fell 20-16. 

We all learned from the day and look ahead to the Waupun tournament on February 28^th.

3^rd Grade Boys at Omro

Our boys played a tournament at Omro on Feb. 8^th.  There were 12 teams; 3 per pool.  Our pool included a team from Appleton and a team from Winneconne. 

Our first game was to start at 2:10, but the teams on our court played an overtime game, which meant we had only 2 minutes to warm-up.  During these 2 minutes, our coach needed to fill out a roster sheet for the scorer’s table.  Here’s a tip:  have a sheet with numbers handy to speedily do this.

Anyway, the boys played hard and won by a fair margin the first game.  Then, immediately off to a different gym, again with short warm up, to play Appleton.  We struggled with this team and lost by 22 points.  Finally, we had 1 ½ hour lay-off entering the consolation bracket. 

This game, our 3^rd, was played at about 5:30 against Pulaski.  They had played two overtime games to get to this game.  We played a nice game and had a 3 point lead going into the last 3 minutes.  They managed to close to within 1 point, but we hung on for the win.  Now, a chance for a medal, in the consolation championship game against Neenah.

Well, another hour lay-off.  Our main objective was to have the boys ready to play (not too much food and keep energized).  The game started at 7:30.  We got off to a good start and managed to get off to a 16-0 lead.  Luckily, Neenah scored 4 or 6 points, and we could feel good about a nice day.  All reports from the kids seemed to be that they all had fun and were tired (including the coach!).

Now, back to practice in getting ready for Beaver Dam Tournament on March 14^th.

The Grafton 4th grade boy’s team traveled to Ozaukee for a 12 team tournament.  We opened against Oshkosh West, who won this tournament last year.  They shot 24 free throws to our 5, and won 25-21.   We then faced Franklin.  With about a minute to go in the game.  Franklin was leading by 1.  Grafton rallied for 3 points to win 14-12.  

We then had to wait around for 2 hours to see who would win between Franklin and Oshkosh West.  Franklin won 30-27.  The first tie breaker was head to head, but all three teams in our pool finished 1-1.  Next tie breaker was points allowed.  We allowed 38, Franklin 41, and Oshkosh 51.  Grafton won its pool, and advanced to face one of 4 #1 seed's, Germantown.  

We started out very slowly against Germantown, and spotted them a 16-1 lead.  It was 24-10 at the half.  The boys then clamped down defensively.   We climbed all the way back to within 4 points of Germantown with about 2:00 minutes left in the game.  It was a tremendous effort.  We ended our championship run by losing 40-32.    We ended up in a tie with Cedar Grove for the 3rd and 4th spots.  Germantown went on to crush Beaver Damn by 17 points in the championship game.  The closest game they had the whole tournament was to our Grafton 4th grade team, 8 points.  Their next closest game was 15 points.  

The boys played tremendously, and never gave up.  All the boys contributed, and all have improved.    

On February 28th the 3^rd grade girl’s team played in Waupan.  We split into two teams ‘Grafton Black’ and ‘Grafton Orange’.  It was amazing to see how far the girls have progressed.  Grafton Orange opened up against Marshall, battled hard but lost.  Next, they took on Oakfield.  Oakfield beat us by 16 points 2 weeks earlier.  The girls had a 2 point lead with 5 minutes left, but we lost by 4.  Oakfield’s coach told us afterwards he was amazed how much the girls had improved in only two weeks.  The girls were tired as we took the court against Franklin.  The girls were down by 10 with 5 minutes left and cut the lead to 4 but ended up loosing by 6.

Grafton Black opened up against Beaver Dam; they won the Oshkosh tournament two weeks ago.  We played hard the whole game but lost by 18.  Next up was Kimberly, we were down 10 at halftime, and battled hard in the 2^nd half but lost by 12.  Our last game was against the host team Waupan.  Waupun had beaten Kimberly by 2 earlier, so we knew we had our hands full. We started out slow and fell behind by 12, and then we found OUR GAME.  We limited Waupun to only 3 points in the second half.  We picked away and took a 1 point lead with 1 minute left.  Waupan has the ball with 5 seconds left but was unable to get a shot off.  Like 2 weeks ago we stormed the court and celebrated the victory.  We will finish our tournament schedule with Grafton Black and Grafton Orange in Beaver Dam on March 14^th.

The Grafton 4th grade boy’s team traveled to Concordia for a 6 team tournament.  The boys opened against Kettle Moraine for their first game.  At half time the two teams were tied at 14.  The boys pulled away in the 4th to win 27-21.  We then squared up against Oak Creek.  It was a close game until late in the 4th quarter when we pulled ahead and won 25-23.

With two wins we were then matched up against Sussex in the championship game.  Sussex had blown out their first two opponents Raymond 37-7, and Port Washington 33-8.  The boys clamped down defensively, and held Sussex in check for the first 3 quarters.  With about 3-4 minutes to go, Sussex scored 6 points to climb within two points.  With 5.9 seconds left in the game and the ball under their own basket, Sussex missed twice, and the ball went out of bounds again!  With 1.5 seconds to go and the ball still under their basket, Grafton stole the inbound pass, and won 18-16.

The boys have worked extremely hard over the past few months.  They earned their championship.  I'm extremely happy for the boys and watching their excitement after the game ended, was priceless.

Todd Bennett

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On March 14^th the 3^rd grade girls ended their tournament schedule in Beaver Dam.  Grafton Black opened up against Franklin. The game was close the entire way, we were down two at halftime and rallied in the second half and won 17-14.  Next, we took on a team from Madison.  Again the game was close the entire way.  We had a 4 point lead with 5 minutes left but their size was an advantage and we could not hit a shot and lost 26-22. 

Next up was Milton Red.  We had a 6 point lead at the half but Milton scored 8 straight to take the lead in the second half.  We fought thru this and won 20-10.  We closed the day against Milton Black.  After spending 8 hours sitting and playing basketball (as well as a side trip to Culvers) the girls were tired, but like we have done all during our season we fought hard and played tough defense.  We did not let them get into their offense and refused to let them score.  We won 16-6 and closed the day 3-1.

I was amazed to see how far the girls have come during our 3 months together.  What I was especially happy to see was the way the girls bonded together as a team.  Seeing the girls between games on Saturday support each other and have fun was more important than the win and loss columns.

Mark Belanger