Defense Rests In Season-Ending Defeat

Evanston’s focus shifted in the second half of the 2023-24 girls basketball season, from defense to offense.

But ETHS head coach Brittanny Johnson would be the first to point out that the cliché doesn’t say offense wins championships.

Glenbrook North burned the Wildkit defense repeatedly Thursday night in the championship game of the Class 4A Niles North Regional tournament and ended Evanston’s season with a 62-52 triumph.

The fifth-seeded Spartans, who split a pair of regular season contests with the Kits, advanced to the Maine South Sectional with a 22-7 record. No. 4 seed Evanston ended a frustrating year at 14-16 overall.

GBN, which never scored more than 50 points in the first two matchups, converted 55 percent of their field goal attempts and placed four players in double figures, led by Caitlyn Ethen’s 19 points.

ETHS seniors Kailey Starks (21 points) and Zuri Ransom (14) saw their careers come to an end, careers in which both players ranked among the top three scorers in program history.

They could have used a lot more help on the defensive end Thursday night.

Despite the fact that it was the third time the familiar foes met this season, the Wildkits struggled to find the right matchups all night in their man-to-man defense as Johnson kept summoning freshmen subs into the action with no positive results.

Johnson tried to create a championship culture built on defense when she first arrived to take over the program eight years ago. But this season, with so many new players in the mix, the emphasis shifted to trying to outscore foes, especially once Ransom (concussion) returned to the lineup following an 11-game losing string.

It worked --- until the Spartans showed up.

“We haven’t been a great defensive team all season,” Johnson admitted. “We really haven’t had issues defending GBN in the past, so kudos to them for the way their ‘other’ players stepped up tonight, because ours just didn’t.

“We threw a lot of freshmen (five) into the fire this year on the varsity level and I feel bad for the seniors (Ransom, Starks, Arianna Milam-Pryor) because we couldn’t find a supporting cast to make this season special for them. They’ve given their hearts and souls to this program. They’ve been loyal and supportive, they’ve given us everything.

“We were really bad defensively tonight. I think the moment (competing for a regional title) got too big for our younger kids. They missed assignments, they missed rotations, we had a lot of breakdowns. It’s a tough ending to a tough season.”

Ransom, a Ball State University recruit, scored all 14 of her points in the first 10 minutes of the contest. But she missed her last eight field goal attempts and committed a crucial turnover after the Wildkits saw a glimmer of hope in the fourth quarter, closing a double-digit deficit to just 48-44.

Ransom finished her career with 1,161 points, second only to Hall of Famer Leighah Amori Wool’s 1,268. Starks climbed to third on the all-time list in her final game, passing Kayla Henning (1,102) to finish at 1,115.

Ransom’s hot hand in the early going helped Evanston maintain the advantage for the first quarter and a half. But GBN closed out the second quarter with a 13-4 run to take a 30-27 edge into the lockerroom at halftime.

The Spartans stretched the lead to 48-38 after three quarters as junior Alexis Myers broke loose for seven of her total 14 points, then withstood a Wildkit comeback bid in their final quarter of the season.

The irrepressible Starks, as usual, sparked the comeback. Her 3-point play with 5 minutes, 45 seconds left on the clock pulled ETHS back within striking distance, down 48-44. And GBN cooperated by missing from the field. But after securing that miss, Ransom threw the ball right back to the Spartans, who responded with six unanswered points to put the game out of reach.

Evanston did get as close as 58-52 on a Starks 3-point shot with just under a minute left, but couldn’t get any closer.

“I knew our youth would hurt us (in the postseason),” Johnson acknowledged. “They just don’t have the experience like GBN does in a win-or-go-home format like this. GBN played better than we did. They made the plays they needed to.

“I really felt all season like our season would end because of our defense. I know for a fact that offense doesn’t win championships.”