Evanston Cagers Earn No. 1 Sectional Seed

Once Evanston’s basketball team learned, as expected, that they’ll own the No. 1 seed for the Class 4A New Trier Sectional tournament complex, the Wildkits immediately shifted into tune-up mode.

The engine sputtered occasionally in Friday’s first tune-up at Maine South and the transmission might need some checking at next Wednesday’s Central Suburban League Showcase game against Niles North, but eventually the Kits expect to be firing on all cylinders once the Illinois High School Association state tournament series gets underway.

Evanston eased past Maine South 71-58 Friday night to cement its first outright conference championship since 2019 --- they shared the title in 2020 and 2021 --- and improved to 25-4 on the season after playing one of the toughest schedules in the state of Illinois.

Ranked 8th in the Associated Press state poll for the second straight week, the Wildkits didn’t always look the part Friday, especially on defense. Last place Maine South (12-16 overall) put four players in double figures and actually forced head coach Mike Ellis to send four of his starters back into the contest for 35 seconds at the end of the game when the Hawks closed to within nine points (at 65-56).

Ian Peters and Kaidan Chatham combined to sink four straight free throws to put the game back out of reach of the hosts.

Theo Rocca poured in 16 points to lead the winners, backed up by Chatham’s 14 points and six rebounds and Vito Rocca’s 10 points and seven rebounds.

Ellis, who has already announced he plans to limit the minutes for his starters in Wednesday’s exhibition crossover home game against CSL North champion Niles North, substituted more than usual Friday night in an effort to get a final look at some of the lineup combinations at his disposal.

The results weren’t always positive.

“We need to be more consistent. There were too many ups and downs during the game tonight,” said the veteran coach. “There were a lot of teachable moments, though, and I think we’ll learn from it. This is a very smart group of guys and I’m confident they’ll learn from it.

“Maine South had four guys in double figures and that’s the first time that’s happened to us all year. Even with all the different lineups, we were never out of rhythm on offense, but our defense let us down. We didn’t get the opportunities in the open court because of that. We have to be more responsible on defense, because the other team should NEVER have four guys in double figures.

“It was disappointing to have to bring the starters back in like that. There was too much carelessness at the defensive end of the floor.”

ETHS converted 51 percent (26-of-51) of its field goal attempts and the visitors weren’t challenged much by South’s attempts at defense. The Hawks were 20-of-49 (41 percent) from the field with their one-on-one attack philosophy that was paced by Panaylotis Sotos’ 17 points.

The Kits broke out to a 16-3 advantage behind Theo Rocca’s seven points, including a steal for a dunk with 4 minutes, 13 seconds left in the first quarter. South fought back within 16-10 by the end of the period, then fell back behind by double digits trailing 33-23 at halftime.

The elder Rocca heated up again in the third quarter with seven more points and Ben Ojala’s 3-point basket sent the visitors into the final quarter with a 48-37 lead.

A drive by sophomore Tate Schroeder --- playing in just his third varsity contest --- boosted the advantage to 61-43 midway through the fourth stanza. But the Hawks refused to quit and whittled the lead down to nine points before the champs finally restored order again.

Asked to discuss the postseason seedings and assignments, Ellis recalled the manner in which the IHSA set up sectionals 20 years ago, when the top four seeds automatically hosted regional tournaments. That scenario led to a 1 versus 8, 2 versus 7, 3 versus 6, etc. type of tourney path.

Now, No. 4 seed Lane Tech and No. 5 New Trier are lodged in the same regional, at Maine South.

Evanston will open tourney play at the Highland Park Regional against the Senn-Leyden winner on Wednesday, Feb. 26. Winner of that game will take on either No. 7 Highland Park or No. 10 Oak Park-River Forest in the title game on Feb. 28.

Loyola Academy was named the No. 2 seed in a vote by sectional coaches and Niles North claimed the No. 3 seed. Both schools will host their own regionals.

“The pairings really don’t matter. We just have to focus on one game at a time,” Ellis explained. “It used to be that the top teams were rewarded with a home game after having earned it in four months of a grind, but not anymore. It’s tough to do the seeding now when the top seeds are locked in as hosts. You can’t spread it out, and I think it would be nice if we could go back to the old system.

“Tonight I told them to promise each other to give their best the rest of the way. Don’t let your teammates down. And as a coach, I just want to put them in the best position possible in the coming weeks. I don’t want to let them down, either.”