Evanston Outlasts Loyola In Three Overtimes

Timi Ogunsanya is shooting 85 percent from the free throw line this season, and any high school basketball player in the state of Illinois would be happy to be at that level.

But Ogunsanya was even better than that Wednesday night. In fact, he was perfect.

And he had to be to deliver Evanston’s second straight trip to the sectional finals.

The Wildkits outlasted host Loyola Academy 77-70 in three overtimes in the semifinals of the Class 4A Loyola Sectional tournament in an epic struggle where one of the game’s small details --- free throw shooting --- made the difference in front of a standing-room-only crowd.

Ogunsanya, the only senior in the ETHS starting lineup, converted all 11 of his attempts at the charity stripe on his way to a career-high of 32 points in the longest postseason game in program history. The No. 2 seeded Wildkits will take a 27-6 record into Friday’s championship game against top seed DePaul Prep, which is seeking its fourth straight state title.

In contrast, the Ramblers (27-7) shot just 14-of-27 and those missed free throws, along with the fact that leading scorer Trey Williams (24 points) fouled out midway through the second overtime, sent them to the sidelines.

Ogunsanya rose to the occasion with eight points in the third OT against a Rambler squad that refused to quit. He registered a rare 4-point play at one point earlier with the game on the line, yet his most critical play of the night might have been a pump fake that drew Williams off his feet for his fifth foul with 2 minutes, 39 seconds left in the second overtime.

Williams finished with a team-high 24 points but Loyola had nothing left in the tank on offense after his departure.

It was definitely Timi’s time with the game on the line. The 6-foot-3 senior netted just five points in the first half, then fired in four 3-point baskets in the second half when he wasn’t breaking Loyola’s hearts, or giving them an opening to come back, at the charity stripe.

He earned a well-deserved fist bump from assistant coach Stacy Moragne in the hallway after the season’s biggest win, as Moragne noted “it’s because of all that extra work you’ve put in” in practice shooting drills and on his own time.

“We have shooting drills at the end of practice every day, just to prepare us for this,” Ogunsanya explained. “So I felt pretty comfortable out there tonight. After I see a couple of them go in, it’s like I know I’m really hot.

“This feels great. It’s the first time I’ve played in this kind of a game and it feels great to come through in this kind of atmosphere. It wasn’t an easy game, not at all, and we knew it wouldn’t be. But tonight I figured out I’m pretty good in tight situations.”

Dion Lane Jr. added 17 points and Vito Rocca, who missed the regular season meeting between the two rivals because of an injury, netted 13 and grabbed seven rebounds for Evanston.

“Our guys did such a great job of persevering tonight,” said ETHS head coach Mike Ellis. “That’s a hard team to guard and they got to the free throw line a lot against us. But our guys didn’t fold, they didn’t panic, and I never saw a chin drop once out there.

“And when Trey Williams fouled out that changed the dynamic of the game. That hurt Loyola at both ends of the floor.

“And what can I say about Timi? That’s what it looks like when you’re a senior playing in a sectional. I’m so proud of him, because that’s what it’s supposed to look like.”

Evanston’s starters turned in iron man performances in the second half and overtime periods as Ellis stuck with them for all of those minutes without a substitution. And the Wildkit coach even resorted to a spread offense to help his team keep the lead in the last OT.

Ironically, the veteran coach is one of the biggest advocates of the shot clock in the high school ranks in Illinois and that will go into effect next season at all games, including the postseason.

But for now, he did what was necessary to survive and advance.

“We knew that Loyola would spread it out if they got the lead (late),” said ETHS sophomore guard Ben Ojala. “That four corners is really a new thing for us. We worked on it the last couple of days in practice, and I guess you could say we gave them a taste of their own medicine.

“We were all exhausted at the end. But for me, I was in a lot of those big moments last year and I knew I could come through in a heated atmosphere like this one.”

Evanston only turned the ball over once in the overtime periods, and capitalized at the free throw line and on drives to the bucket by Rocca and Ogunsanya in the last four minutes.

“I believe in our guards in that spread, because they’re really solid,” Ellis added. “They didn’t put themselves in harm’s way and they took good care of the ball. They did a nice job of playing with the lead.”

The two teams were tied at 53-all at the end of regulation when Williams (4-of-12 at the free throw line) split a pair of attempts with 24 seconds to play. Ogunsanya’s attempt at a game-winning shot was deflected as time ran out.

Loyola had the opportunity for some last-second heroics at the end of the first overtime after Rocca’s layup off a feed from Ojala rallied the Kits from a late 58-56 deficit. The hosts milked the clock for the final 75 seconds, but an off-balance shot by Williams glanced off the rim and Evanston product Broderick Munsey-Johnson couldn’t make the putback attempt.

Rocca misfired on a contested 3-point try at the end of the second OT with the two teams still tied at 65-65. But Evanston never trailed in the last OT after the junior forward’s drive for a layup in the first 30 seconds of the period, outscoring the losers 12-5.