BY RICH PALZEWIC
CORRESPONDENT

SUAMICO – The Bay Port boys’ basketball team has a losing streak.

For the first time since the 2014-15 season – a span of over three years – the Pirates have lost back-to-back games.

Outscored 12-2 in the last four minutes, Bay Port (9-3 overall, 7-2 FRCC) dropped a 62-58 Fox River Classic Conference game to the Notre Dame Tritons (10-3, 6-3) Jan. 19 at Bay Port High School.

The loss comes on the heels of a 47-46 overtime loss to Pulaski, Jan. 16. The Red Raiders now sit alone on top of the FRCC with an 8-1 record.

“I thought we had pretty good energy early, but when times got tough we didn’t deal with the adversity very well again,” said Bay Port head coach Nate Rykal. “That’s two games in a row now where we’ve have the lead for the majority of the game – that’s three times this year – and we couldn’t finish it. We lose to Kimberly and Pulaski by one and now to these guys. We made several mistakes in a row at the end where we just need to deal with adversity and be able to make plays. We made mistakes instead of making good plays.”

You have to go back almost four years since Bay Port last lost back-to-back FRCC games.

Leading 56-50 late in the game, the Pirates went ice-cold from the floor and Notre Dame played with poise. Bay Port shot just 33 percent overall (16-of-49) from the field.

“It was great,” said Notre Dame head coach John Taylor. “We haven’t been competitive here at Bay Port in 10 years, so it’s a great step for our program. We talked about preparing for them – we had to value our possessions, especially late in the game. Bay Port tries to speed you up to force you into their shot blockers and we just took our time. We wanted to make them play defense for more than 15 seconds. We took advantage of our open looks to the basket late in the game.”

Tied at six early on, Bay Port’s Alec Nagel hit back back-to-back threes to give the Pirates a 12-6 lead. Nagel would hit two more trifectas in the half to help his team lead 29-26 at the break. Nagel would end with those 12 points for the game.

Bay Port was in the double bonus with 6:54 remaining in the game after Notre Dame committed its tenth team foul of the second half. The Pirates shot a respectable 76 percent (22-of-29) from the free-throw line.

The Tritons took their first lead (57-56) with 2:20 remaining since they led 4-2 early in the game. Connor Hennigan scored eight of his game-high 21 points down the stretch for Notre Dame. Guard Avery Lyons also had a strong game with his 18 points. Hennigan also had 10 rebounds.

Carson Schroeder started the game for Cordell Tinch, who sat out the first four minutes due to missed practice time for an ankle injury.

Like Nagel, Deland Phillips also had 12 points, while Jack Plumb added 11 points and 13 rebounds. Cade Johnson chipped in with nine points.

Bay Port will look to get back to its winning ways when it hosts Sheboygan South Tuesday, Jan. 23, in another FRCC game.

Box score
Notre Dame: 26, 36 – 62
Bay Port: 29, 29 – 58

ND: Lyons 18, Strohmeyer 2, Johnson 2, Hennigan 21, Rader 4, Zak 9, Glime 2, Ruiz 2, Jensen 2; 3-pt: Lyons 2, Zak 1; FG: 25-57; FT: 9-12; PF: 19.

BP: Phillips 12, Johnson 9, Schroeder 4, Nagel 12, Plumb 11, Tinch 6, King 2, LaMue 2; 3-pt: Nagel 4; FG: 16-49; FT: 22-29; PF: 14.