Knights girls rout Lutheran and Port to stay unbeaten

Glendale - The best thing for the rest of the area's girls basketball teams is for Nicolet to play in an unhappy manner.

Unfortunately, right now, after a short case of midseason doldrums, the Knights steps are quick and their hearts are light as evidenced by a 54-36 win over Milwaukee Lutheran on Jan. 31 and the even more impressive 72-37 rout of Port Washington on Friday.

"We got back to square one," Knights coach Corey Wolf said. "The biggest things for us are working hard and having fun. The girls had a lot of fun last Friday. They got excited for one another, they were diving on the floor and the bench was awesome. It was just a total team effort.

"Our overall energy was just terrific."

Tough challenge coming up

The top-ranked Knights improved to 10-0 in North Shore play and 16-0 overall. They face a serious challenge Friday, when they visit always dangerous Grafton (8-2, 11-4). Nicolet beat the Blackhawks in December, but Grafton, coached by energetic two-time state champion Bob Maronde, is playing better.

Maronde is also a coach who wants his team to play with spirit and life.

"We're not going to compare what happened in the last game to what might happen this time around," Wolf said. "We know that they're on the upswing again. Though, we are hoping that he does wear his orange blazer. The kids really like that (laughs)."

Maronde is known as being the snappiest dresser among North Shore Conference coaches, boys or girls.

The Blackhawks, however, will be hard-pressed to match the Knights' energy.

Stepping on the gas

Nicolet broke out to a 23-7 first quarter lead against Port (2-8, 4-11) and then never looked back as shooting guard Brittney Fair had another huge game with 26 points while point guard Courtney Smith hit five of seven 3-point attempts for 15 points.

"A lot of those were from 2 to 3 feet behind the line," Wolf said.

Smith just committed to NCAA Division 2 Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. Briana Gray added 15 for Nicolet.

The Knights weren't quite as energetic against Lutheran (1-9, 1-13), but still managed to get the job done. It was only 23-17 at the half, but Nicolet managed to stretch it out to 35-24 at the end of three.

The 5-9 post Gray had a huge game with 21 points while Fair added 18 and Smith seven.

"This is the time of year where we try to pick it up a little," Wolf said. "You can lose a bit of energy and forget what it is to have fun. We had to remind ourselves we love to play basketball.

"It helped us become closer as a team."