ETHS Girls Climb Into Tie For Division Lead

Whoever first said it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish must have had the Evanston girls basketball team in mind.

The Wildkits started slow for the third game in a row Monday night but went on to whip Glenbrook North 65-34 in a makeup Central Suburban League South division contest at Beardsley Gym.

Now the question is, how will they finish off the rest of the CSL season? The Wildkits will wake up Tuesday morning owning a share of first place after Glenbrook South handed Maine South its first conference loss (52-44) in another makeup game from last Friday, when extreme weather wiped out the schedule.

Evanston’s grip on its own destiny became even more secure with that result. The Kits have road games against GBS (Friday night) and Maine South (February 6th) remaining on the schedule and can win the title outright if they win both games.

A split would possibly lead to a share of the crown, as Glenbrook South currently sits one game back of the league leaders with a pair of losses.

Whatever happens in the final two games, head coach Brittanny Johnson knows that the Kits aren’t in a position to spot an opponent eight points to start the game.

That was the scenario Monday before the Kits settled in behind Charity Bryant (19 points), Simone Hewitt (16) and Payton King (13) to beat GBN for the second time this season. Evanston didn’t climb back into the lead after trailing 8-0 until midway through the second quarter, and didn’t pull away until putting together a 13-0 run in the third period that broke the game open.

In fact, the running clock (for a 30-point lead) actually went into effect for the last couple of minutes as ETHS improved to 12-7 overall. Glenbrook North dropped to 12-10 after committing 24 turnovers and shooting only 30 percent (11-of-37) from the field.

“Our starts have not been great the last three games,” Johnson admitted. “It’s almost like they need some adversity to get them going. And I don’t love it. You can’t do that against good teams. GBN ran an offensive set we didn’t see in the first game and got a couple of 3-pointers right away. They have to realize that when we play teams for the second time, those teams are going to make adjustments, and we didn’t handle those adjustments well in the first quarter.”

ETHS outscored the visitors 18-8 in the second quarter, but the 28-22 halftime lead wasn’t really comfortable. Not until the winners used an unlikely weapon --- the 3-point shot --- to help put the Spartans away.

For the game, the Wildkits shot just 5-of-20 from 3-point range and they haven’t relied on long distance marksmanship at all while climbing to the top of the league. But back-to-back-back 3-point baskets by Havana Van Wyk, Hewitt and King pushed the lead from 32-28 to 41-28 with three and a half minutes remaining in the quarter, and the Spartans never got any closer.

Van Wyk connected from the corner --- she missed all seven of her other 3-point attempts ---, the 6-foot-1 Hewitt was so wide open there wasn’t a GBN defender located in the same area code, and King completed the trifecta as part of her own individual 9-point surge in the period.

Johnson appreciated the makes and didn’t mind the 3-point misses as much as you might think.

“Those 3-pointers broke the game open for us,” she said. “I’m glad when they shoot when they’re open like that. We’ve seen where some other teams are not defending some kids at all, so if they take those wide open shots it’s not a bad shot. They just have to understand the appropriate time to take chances (clock and score situations) when they do things that might be unexpected.

“I thought Simone (Hewitt, the 6-foot-1 freshman) gave us a great spark off the bench tonight. And that 3-pointer was great for her confidence. I talked to her last week about how all freshmen have ups and downs and she’s fought through that. It can be hard to play her and Charity together at the same time, but when the matchups make sense, they’ll be out there together.”