Kits Start Strong With Regional Rout

Some so-called experts are predicting a trip to the Final Four for Evanston’s basketball team in a couple of weeks.

They may be right --- they may be wrong.

But the Wildkits have already surpassed what they accomplished last year, at least in the postseason.

Unlike last year’s stunning loss to Maine South in the one-loss-and-done scenario of the Illinois High School Association state series, the Kits took that first step without a stumble Wednesday and buried Leyden 93-35 at the Class 4A Highland Park Regional tournament.

Top-seeded Evanston improved to 26-5 on the season and will face host Highland Park for the regional title on Friday at 7 p.m. No. 7 seed Highland Park eliminated Oak Park-River Forest 57-41 in the other regional semifinal behind 32 points from guard Simon Moschin.

Evanston scored more than 90 points in a game for the fifth time this year --- a school record, no doubt --- behind double figure efforts from six players in the rout. A slight injury to senior guard Ian Peters, who twisted his ankle in the third quarter, sounded the only sour note as the Wildkits got back on track following a loss to Niles North in the regular season finale.

Evanston sliced apart Leyden’s 3-2 zone defense right from the opening whistle, as Theo Rocca (13 points) and George Richardson (nine) reached their usual scoring averages in the first eight minutes of another running clock victory.

Rocca finished with a game-high 15 points and had plenty of help from Richardson (14), Miles Ross (12), Dion Lane Jr. (11), Kaidan Chatham (10) and Vito Rocca (10). Chatham also registered a game-high five assists and Peters added four as the share-the-wealth theme continued for the winners. They notched 25 assists as a team on 36 made field goals and shot 62 percent (36-of-58) from the floor.

With a full week between the end of the regular season and the start of the “second” season, ETHS head coach Mike Ellis noted that his squad focused on how to efficient run the zone offense they don’t get to use much these days.

Foes rarely play anything but man-to-man trying to stop the Kits and maybe the shellacking that Leyden absorbed Wednesday is the reason why. Evanston also connected on 12-of-27 attempts from 3-point range, with reserves Ross and Lane Jr. combining to sink seven shots from beyond the arc.

“That’s one advantage to playing on Wednesday (in the past the IHSA regionals have started on Tuesday), one more day of practice for our zone offense,” said Ellis. “Of course now we only have one day to get ready for the next game instead of two.

“That’s the first time we’ve faced a team that played zone as their base defense against us in at least a month. I think (Chicago) Dyett did that (at the Centralia Holiday Tournament). People have thrown a zone against us occasionally, but not for 32 minutes.

“Another game over 90 points? That’s what happens when you share the basketball like these guys do. I love how they don’t think twice about making the extra pass, because they know the ball is going to come back to them (to shoot) at some point. They have confidence in each other and they really play through each other.”

Peters’ mishap midway through the third period, ironically, was a result of the way Ellis cleared his bench on Senior Night against Niles North.

“The starters in that game only played eight minutes, and I was worried that they needed to get to play more minutes tonight,” the coach explained. “That’s why he was in there (with Evanston leading 63-17 at that point). But he could have gone back in if we needed him to.”

The Wildkits pounced on Leyden for a 26-5 lead in the first quarter and pushed the margin to 50-15 by halftime. Ross, a seldom-used junior sharpshooter, poured in three 3-point baskets in the final period to enable ETHS to threaten the 100-point mark once again under the slaughter rule where the clock keeps running in the fourth quarter when one team leads by 30 points.

Sophomore Tate Schroeder scored a pair of baskets in the final quarter and finished with eight points.

Leyden (9-22) was paced by Ernesto Sanchez and Nicholas Gatto, who netted 13 points apiece.