Defense Hands Evanston Another League Win

Evanston isn’t the only high school basketball program that keeps a statistic based on the number of deflections recorded in a game.

But it’s one way to showcase just how much the defense can leave a fingerprint on a given victory.

It happened again Friday night at Beardsley Gymnasium. The Wildkits were credited with 36 deflections --- one of their best defensive performances of the 2024-25 season --- as they set the tone at that end of the court in a 58-36 stifling of Maine South in Central Suburban League South division play.

Hands down --- pardon the pun --- it was Evanston’s best defensive effort to date in league play. The Kits improved to 4-1 in the CSL South, behind only unbeaten New Trier, and moved to 14-2 overall. They’ll play Rolling Meadows on the road Saturday for the second time this season, having defeated the Mustangs 59-54 at the Fenton Thanksgiving tournament.

Maine South (7-9 overall, 0-5 CSL South) shot just 36 percent (16-of-44) from the field and turned the ball over 15 times against that hands-on defense.

Evanston only required a minimum of offense in this one, as sophomore Vito Rocca (16 points) was the lone ETHS player to reach double figures with a game-high 16 points.

“I thought we played solid at both ends of the floor tonight,” said Evanston head coach Mike Ellis. “Our mentality coming in was to square up on defense, and I thought the defense ignited our offense. We had all of those deflections and we contested a lot of shots, too. We took them out of everything they tried to do, and they couldn’t get any kind of rhythm.

“We played better for 32 minutes tonight than we have in our recent games.”

Evanston entered Friday’s game allowing just 42 points per contest and the Kit defenders were alert and aggressive in their man-to-man defense from the opening tip. And even though Rocca was the only ETHS player in double figures, the winners did record 15 assists on 24 total field goals with better ball movement at that end of the court.

Theo Rocca and Kaidan Chatham each scored seven points for the winners, who shot 43 percent (24-of-56) from the floor. The elder Rocca, who didn’t play much in the second half because of the comfortable lead, contributed a team-best four assists.

South was paced by Panaylotis Soto with 15 points and Rico Dalessandro with 14.

The hosts outscored the Hawks 18-6 in the opening period behind Theo Rocca’s seven points and four from brother Vito. They stretched the margin to 34-18 by halftime, then sparked the memory of the most famous game-winning shot in school history --- Blake Peters’ three quarter court shot to beat Maine South at the final buzzer --- when his younger brother, Ian Peters, beat the third quarter buzzer with a 20-footer for an overwhelming 49-26 advantage.

“I thought the leadership we got from Ian and Theo tonight was really important,” Ellis added. “Ian has done a great job of demanding that kind of effort from his teammates. When you play that hard yourself, you can make that kind of a statement.

“We have a tough month ahead of us and we don’t really need any reminders to stay focused. We just have to take it one game at a time, one practice at a time.”