Inconsistent Kits Take Early Exit

Inconsistent might seem like a strange term to apply to any high school basketball team that won 20 games during the regular season.

But that’s just the kind of play that rose up and bit unsuspecting Evanston Wednesday night in Glenview.

The Wildkits suffered their earliest exit from Illinois High School Association state tournament play since the 2010-11 campaign, combining shoddy first half defense with lackluster offense for a 49-32 loss to No. 10 seeded Maine South in the semifinals of the Class 4A regional tourney at Glenbrook South.

The Hawks, who were the worst team in the Central Suburban League South division this winter, avenged two regular season losses to the Wildkits and advanced to the title game with a 13-17 won-loss record. They’ll face host GBS, a 54-33 winner over Highland Park in the other semifinal, in Friday’s championship game.

No. 6 seed Evanston finished 20-11 and hardly looked the part of a 20-game winner at any point on Wednesday. The last time an ETHS team lost in the regional semis was a 2011 defeat to Schaumburg by a 58-51 margin.

Wednesday, the Kits shot a dismal 27 percent from the field, including 1-of-13 from 3-point range, and missed eight layups in the fourth quarter after the defense finally showed up in the second half.

It wasn’t a satisfying ending to an up-and-down campaign.

“I didn’t see our worst game of the season coming,” said a subdued ETHS head coach, Mike Ellis. “Even though we talked all week about how important the first four minutes of the game would be tonight, Maine South came out and took it to us right from the tip.

“Our defense didn’t get on the bus tonight --- and the offense, as well. We didn’t have any sense of urgency as a team. That’s what it looks like when you’re out there on the floor just to play, instead of being out there on the floor to win. For whatever reason, Maine South was the aggressor and we played soft. Maine South got hot and they weren’t uncomfortable out there for a single minute against us.”

The most offensively-challenged team in the CSL South torched the Wildkits for 36 points in the first half and only missed two field goal attempts in 15 tries. The Hawks reverted back to their usual form in the second half, mustering just four field goals over the last 16 minutes, but Evanston’s inability to pry the lid off the basket helped the winners maintain a double digit lead throughout the second half.

A 3-point basket by junior Ian Peters pulled Evanston within 42-30 with seven minutes remaining, but the losers only scored one more basket the rest of the way, a drive by reserve Yan Nalls to cap a disappointing offensive performance.

Evanston connected on 12-of-44 field goal attempts. Senior guard Brandon Watson led the attack with 9 points on 4-of-14 shooting from the floor and another senior, Morgan Brown, contributed 7 points.

South advanced behind 17 points from Panayiotis Sotos and 16 from Jack Sladky. “Maine South’s whole team stepped up tonight, and Park Ridge can be proud of them,” Ellis said.

Ellis and his coaching staff managed to turn a squad that featured zero returning starters from a year ago into a solid defensive unit that only surrendered about 45 points per game.

But the puzzle that never was solved was on offense, where the Wildkits shot about 30 percent from 3-point range on the season, an area that figured to be a team strength coming out of the summer.

“When you look at the totality of our season, over four months, consistency has been our biggest nemesis --- as individuals and as a team,” Ellis noted. “We were up and down, mostly on the offensive end. I thought we would improve our shot-making (ability) over last year, but at different times during the year we struggled to make shots at the rim, and we struggled to hit wide open 3s.

“Trust me, we DO shoot a lot in practice. Some of these guys put in extra time, too, but you have to invest in what you’re trying to do when no one is in the gym watching you. That’s what leads to how you perform when the game is on the line.”