Kirkpatrick Spoils Perfect Season For ETHS

Plenty of hype surrounded New Trier guard Christopher Kirkpatrick when he earned a starting job for the Trevians as a sophomore.

And when he committed to play basketball at Princeton University last summer, a Chicago newspaper writer went so far as to call him one of the top five prospects in the Class of 2026.

But Kirkpatrick didn’t do much damage to rival Evanston over the course of his career --- until Friday night.

The 6-foot-3 senior returned from a knee injury that sidelined him the first time the two teams met and scored a game-high 24 points, including clutch plays down the final stretch as the Trevians spoiled Evanston’s bid for a perfect Central Suburban League South division season with a 72-67 triumph in Winnetka.

Already crowned division champions, the Wildkits faltered in the fourth quarter in an intense matchup that saw the lead change hands 12 times in the second half. Evanston didn’t score in the final 1 minute, 47 seconds and stumbled to 23-6 on the year.

Just like the first time the two teams met --- a 67-59 ETHS win --- the two neighbors slugged it out possession by possession. But this time it was Kirkpatrick who provided the finishing touch as he scored three field goals in the last 1:22 to wipe out a 67-64 Evanston lead.

Wildkit junior Vito Rocca was whistled for traveling at midcourt as the Kits, down 70-67, looked for a game-tying 3-pointer with 5 seconds left on the clock. Two free throws at the other end by Danny Houlihan sealed the win for the hosts, now 21-8.

Kirkpatrick was hardly a game-changer in previous tests against the Wildkits, although he did lead his team in scoring in a loss last year and in a win as a sophomore. He missed the second showdown with ETHS last year with another injury, but had the last laugh on Evanston as the Trevs scored their first win in their new gym over their rivals.

It’s the last laugh, at least unless the two teams meet in the Class 4A Loyola Academy Sectional tournament in a couple of weeks. Evanston owns the No. 2 seed and New Trier is ranked No. 5 in the postseason field and they could collide again in the sectional title game on March 5th.

You have to spell Intensity with a capital I whenever the schedule brings the Kits and Trevians together on the hardcourt. Even with nothing at stake in the league standings, and with postseason seeds already determined. the less-than-capacity crowd witnessed a fierce battle that featured technical fouls on each side, players diving for loose balls with regularity, and hard fouls on occasion.

It had the atmosphere of a sectional final, but the Wildkits couldn’t rise to the occasion despite 17 points from Ben Ojala, 16 from Rocca, 14 from Timi Ogunsanya and 11 from Dion Lane.

Kirkpatrick, after a slow start in the first half, poured in 19 points in the last two periods and was backed up by Elton Jaegerskog’s 22 points and 11 from Houlihan. Jaegerskog also contributed a key blocked shot when Ojala thought he had a clear lane for a layup with New Trier nursing a one-point advantage in the final 20 seconds.

Kirkpatrick shot 9-of-14 from the floor for the winners.

“We knew Kirkpatrick was close to being ready to play again for them, and we prepared as if he was going to play. But 24 points in 17 minutes? That certainly helped their cause,” said a disappointed Evanston coach, Mike Ellis.

“We had Timi --- and Ben --- and Vito step up for us at different times in the game. But our play overall was just too up and down. New Tried did a good job defensively of taking us out of our rhythm and we didn’t get it done at the end.

“We were playing tonight to go 10-0 in the conference, and for spots on the all-conference team, and our kids always want to win at New Trier. It just appeared to me that New Trier wanted to win more than we did. We missed some reads (on offense), and didn’t make the right plays and ended up having to freelance out there. They got 57 points from their three guards, so there’s no question they outplayed us.

“New Trier made all the right decisions down the stretch and they got all the loose balls. We struggled to even get the ball inbounds on that last play when Vito was called for traveling. I didn’t think he traveled --- he took a pivot but didn’t put the ball on the ground --- but the ref had a better look than I did. If he said he traveled, he traveled.”

New Trier still trails in the win column in the all-time series in basketball, with Evanston on top with 126 wins to New Trier’s 101. Unable to do much offensively --- they missed an uncharacteristic 7 shots in a row from 3-point range in the first half --- the visitors fell behind by 11 on a Kirkpatrick triple late in the first half and were fortunate to only trail 37-32 at the intermission.

The Kits clawed back and finally took the lead at 50-48 on a triple by Ojala, the first of three he sank in the final two minutes of the period. But Kirkpatrick countered with a pair of free throws and a 16-foot jumper to quell that momentum and shift it back to a 58-55 New Trier lead after three quarters.

Both Rocca and Ogunsanya picked up their fourth personal fouls in the third quarter and that forced Ellis to dig deeper into his bench, where he couldn’t find any offense. Both players eventually fouled out.

Evanston’s final regular season game will send the Kits to Skokie next Wednesday for the CSL crossover “championship” contest at Niles North.

The Wildkits will host an IHSA regional tournament and will face the Mather-Niles West winner in their postseason debut on Wednesday, Feb. 25 at 6 p.m. No. 7 seed Niles North and No. 10 Maine South will meet in the other regional semifinal, with the championship game set for Friday, Feb. 27 at 7 p.m.