Freshmen Lead Kit Girls To Third Straight Win

Leave it to a couple of freshmen to spoil Senior Night.

But Evanston’s Charity Bryant and Ella Martin didn’t exactly play like freshmen on the road Wednesday night.

Missing two starters because of injuries --- what else is new? ---- the Wildkits upended DePaul Prep by a 50-48 margin for their third straight victory.

Bryant erupted for a career-high 28 points and snatched 11 rebounds, Martin provided the kind of toughness on the boards (nine rebounds) and on defense that she hadn’t displayed before, and the Kits turned in one of their best defensive performances of the season to put a damper on Senior Night for a 16-win DePaul team.

The visitors limited the Rams (16-10) to 28 percent shooting from the field (19-of-66) and outrebounded them 40-32. That was just enough to hold on at the end as DePaul tried to rally from a 45-38 deficit at the start of the fourth quarter.

Evanston scored just one point in the final 90 seconds, a free throw by Martin with eight seconds remaining, but DePaul’s Kaitlin Totaro and 6-foot-3 Grace Lee both missed contested shots in the last 25 seconds and the visitors escaped with a win that lifted them to 8-16 on the season.

Bryant, a 6-foot freshman, has been asked to do more than your typical first-year high school basketball player because of injuries that have prevented head coach Brittanny Johnson from putting her best potential starting five on the floor together.

Johnson thought the tide had turned when Payton King was cleared to play after being sidelined with a concussion for six weeks. But King and Brielle Rosemond collided during last Saturday’s win over Barrington and neither player suited up Wednesday.

Bryant has even been used to handle the ball and break through pressure defenses because of the difficulties the ETHS backcourt has had with turnovers.

Wednesday, she put it all together after a slow start. She converted 12-of-19 field goal attempts, including a 3-pointer, and also contributed a blocked shot for the winners.

That effort came after a slow start, and a freshman mistake before the game even began. Bryant missed the pregame introductions because she had to dash back to the locker room to find her No. 33 jersey and put it on.

“For some reason, instead of wearing my jersey I put it in my bag instead,” Bryant explained. “Then I left my bag in the locker room during warmups. So I had to sprint back and get it before the game started.

“Maybe that threw me off a little at first tonight. Tonight I just had a moment where I needed to lock in for my team and play as hard as I could. Coach Johnson has talked a lot this year about rebounding and defense, and that’s been the hardest thing for me to do consistently. I think we’ve responded to all of the losses we’ve had. Our team is really strong now and we adjusted really well tonight. We had a better approach and a tougher stance out there.”

Martin may also be a first-year player, but she recognized immediately what it meant when the schedule listed ETHS as DePaul’s Senior Night opponent. That’s hardly a compliment.

“When you see that another school chooses you for Senior Night, you have to come into the game with a chip on your shoulder,” said Martin, who scored five points to go with her nine rebounds and had visible scratches on her face from battling the Rams for several held balls.

“We fell asleep in the first quarter (with 11 turnovers), but after that we pushed through. We showed our resilience and we kept fighting. In the first quarter we were breaking the press and turning the ball over because we were too rushed. We got caught up in the heat of the moment, but we were able to slow down after that.

“I feel like I’ve been settling into the pressure of playing varsity basketball for most of the year. It’s a big jump and I think I’ve definitely grown. All this losing has been really discouraging because it’s like a rotating door with all of the injuries. We’re playing with limited bodies, but we’re working hard.”

Johnson can only hope that the growing pains the young squad has endured so far will pay dividends down the road.

“Our freshmen didn’t play like freshmen tonight,” praised the ETHS head coach. “There’s no question that was Ella’s best game of the year. She played great defense and she hardly turned the ball over. I just loved how she played tonight. Every good play we had was because of her.

“It seemed like every time we needed a big play, Charity came through for us. (Senior) Jayla Warren was the defensive player of the game. She really answered the call and she doesn’t usually have to play against someone bigger (the 6-3 Lee) than her. She closed out on shots and did a great job.

“It was a total team effort. Everybody did what they needed to do. We’ve been battle-tested by the schedule we play, by the injuries, by some really tough losses and when you go through something like that you want a moment like this. They deserved it. They earned it.”

DePaul Prep followed the tradition of starting all seniors on Senior Night, leaving the 6-3 junior Lee on the bench. The Rams still pulled ahead 12-6 by the end of the first period but it was just the calm before the Bryant storm that followed. She poured in 12 points in the quarter --- Evanston tallied 19 as a team --- and the Rams needed two late buckets from Lee to creep back into a 25-25 halftime tie.

A pair of 3-point baskets delivered by Havana Van Vyk gave the Wildkits some separation early in the third quarter, and Bryant’s 14-footer in the lane with 0:01 on the clock following a missed DePaul free throw --- the Rams missed eight at the charity stripe overall --- provided an advantage that was too big to overcome.

DePaul was paced by Totaro’s 11 points. Lee had to deal with Warren in the paint and shot only 4-of-12 from the field, although her one-handed hook shot with exactly one minute left did cut the deficit to 49-46.

“I like the way we stayed aggressive tonight, even when DePaul made their runs,” Johnson added. “Charity has been the X factor for us. She’s had other games where she’s been great from start to finish. I don’t want to put too much pressure on her because she’s a freshman, but I challenged her on the bench and said she needed to play better --- and she responded.”

Evanston will play on the road twice this weekend. The Kits have a Central Suburban League South division rematch at rival New Trier Friday at 5:30 p.m., and will visit Warren on Saturday for another 5:30 contest.