ETHS Girls Outlast New Trier For Win No. 800

Plays made on the defensive end can be just as big as plays made on the offensive end.

That’s a philosophy that helped Evanston’s girls basketball team reach a program milestone Tuesday night at the New Trier West campus.

The Wildkits outplayed New Trier down the stretch and scored a 44-37 overtime victory. The triumph not only kept the Kits alive in the Central Suburban League South division race, but stands as win No. 800 since the program began back in the 1973-74 school year.

Evanston, now 13-8 overall, got an offensive boost from two unexpected sources, senior Ellie Oif and sophomore Kailey Starks. Oif tossed in a team-high 14 points and Starks netted all 9 of her points in the last 10 minutes of the contest between the two rivals.

Zuri Ransom contributed 11 points, 10 rebounds and 4 steals as the winners overcame another frigid shooting night with the in-your-face defense that has always been a program trademark. New Trier (9-11) was paced by Casey Scharoff’s 16 points and still leads the all-time series with 63 wins to 40 for ETHS.

Evanston’s first visit to the West campus for a girls varsity cage contest since the 1980s was because construction of a new gym on New Trier’s East campus has already begun and both the boys and girls teams are now hosting games at New Trier West. The triumph, the 6th in 8 conference games for ETHS, was the result of the coaching staff urging the players to take more chances and try to make more plays, in an effort to revive a sputtering offense.

The winners only shot 28 percent (15-of-53) against New Trier’s 2-3 zone, but Oif’s 7-point outburst in the third quarter of a game that was almost always a 1-possession battle kept the Kits alive. And Starks provided the finishing touch, mostly with her 3 steals that led to a chance for her to connect on 5-of-6 attempts at the free throw line.

“We talked a lot this week about making more big plays, and the fact that big plays came come on defense, they can be rebounds, they can be just making the right play on offense,” said Evanston head coach Brittanny Johnson. “We just want them to go out there and make plays. Our defense has been great, but we actually have to score sometimes off our defense, too.

“I thought both teams played well enough to win tonight. Luckily, we made enough plays down the stretch.”

Starks, who always plays defense with a capital D, pounced on New Trier’s 5-foot-4 senior point guard Caitlin Pedraja for 3 crucial steals with the game on the line. She registered 5 points in the overtime period and helped the Wildkits outscore the Trevians 7-0 over the last 1:27 of the extra period.

Evanston fell behind 23-18 late in the third quarter and then Oif got hot. The slender senior fired in a pair of 15-foot jump shots, then delivered a steal for a bucket and a free throw, a 3-point play that drew the visitors within 26-25 by the end of the quarter.

Tied at 33-all with 42 seconds remaining in regulation play, Evanston held for a final shot. Ransom took her own chance ---after being bottled up by the swarming Trevian zone for most of the second half --- but lost the ball out of bounds with 5 seconds left on a drive down the lane. Scharoff’s 30-foot heave at the buzzer was off target for the hosts.

“New Trier really made it tough for us tonight,” Johnson pointed out. “But little by little --- even though I know it doesn’t show on the scoreboard --- we’ve been improving against zones. We took some chances and tonight we were rewarded for taking those chances.

“This is an historic win and I’m glad they trusted themselves enough to take chances.”

Evanston remained one game behind Maine South in the CSL South standings with 2 games to play.

“I wish our destiny was more in our hands,” said Johnson. “But we’ll just try to win out and control what we can control. We still have some time to get it together and make a push in the playoffs. I can feel us playing better, and being the team we were a month or so ago, and that’s a good feeling.”