Ram Tough Defense Ends Evanston's Season

There’s tough --- and then there’s Ram tough.

DePaul Prep’s Rams showed Evanston’s basketball team just the kind of defense it takes to win championships Friday night in Wilmette.

Leading by five points at halftime, DePaul held the Wildkits to just a single basket in the third quarter and pulled away for a 55-42 triumph in the championship game of the Class 4A Loyola Academy Sectional tournament.

A program built around a stifling man-to-man defense, the Rams took one step closer to a possible fourth straight state championship. They’ve only lost one game to an Illinois school this season --- defending 4A champion Benet Academy --- and will play Hersey in Monday’s supersectional at the NOW Arena in Hoffman Estates. Hersey knocked off Fremd 73-66 to advance to Monday’s showdown.

DePaul held the Wildkits (27-7) to their second lowest point total of the season. The losers, who relied heavily on robust offensive output all season, managed just six 3-point baskets and only got off a total of 38 field goal attempts against the relentless Rams.

You can’t win when the other team won’t even give you a good look at the basket.

“Their defense played very well tonight. They took us out of sync right from the start and we weren’t on our toes tonight. They had us playing back on our heels,” said Evanston head coach Mike Ellis.

“This is what can happen to you when you rely so much on shot-making. When you aren’t making shots, that bleeds over to the other failures we had in this game. But I didn’t think there was anything they did specifically on defense. I just felt like we didn’t do what we needed to do. We didn’t have a guy step up like we usually do. We didn’t have a guy who said OK, get on my back for awhile.

“Our guys really fought hard tonight. Even when we were out of sync, they still kept fighting.”

All-Staters Rykan Woo (22 points) and Rashaun Porter (14) led DePaul (31-3). For the Kits, only Ben Ojala (15) and Dion Lane Jr. (14) reached double figures in the season-ending defeat.

Ojala scored Evanston’s lone bucket of the third quarter --- a 3-point bomb at the 5:55 mark --- and the losers mustered only three free throws the rest of the period, which ended with the Rams on top 39-26.

ETHS never got closer than 10 points in the fourth quarter even though Woo fouled out with 4:13 left to play.

Ojala noted that early turnovers (9 in the first half) put the second-seeded Wildkits into a hole they couldn’t climb out of.

“This is a very hard loss to take, but that’s a good team,” praised the sophomore guard. “It’s not a normal defense that they play. We’ve seen that switching man-to-man before, but they do some very aggressive switching and they really forced us to stay out of the paint. I wish we’d had a better start against them.

“I thought we got some good looks. We just didn’t knock them down. Statistics wise that was one of the best defenses we’ve played against.”

“They’re very disciplined on defense and they’re very disciplined on offense,” said Lane Jr. “But I also think we shot ourselves in the foot with so many turnovers. We couldn’t really get the shots we wanted. I really think it’s more on us, though. We just missed shots.”

Evanston’s 39 percent shooting (15-of-38) from the field included a 6-of-16 showing from 3-point range. Two of Evanston’s starters, Tate Schroeder and Timi Ogunsanya, contributed just two points apiece. Vito Rocca netted eight points and was limited to just 15 minutes on the floor due to foul trouble.

ETHS fell behind 15-6 after the first quarter while Rocca picked up two personal fouls and went to the bench. He returned briefly before earning his third foul at the 5:13 mark of the second stanza, and the Kits hung tough without their leading scorer and rebounder, closing to within 25-20 when Ogunsanya scored his only basket on an inbound play.

DePaul Prep, which won the Class 3A state title last year, hasn’t been challenged yet in the postseason after moving up to 4A due to the Illinois High School Association “success factor” policy that seeks to keep private schools from dominating for too long a period in a given sport.

The addition of the Rams and Saint Patrick to the sectional grouping on the North Shore made the state’s toughest big school sectional even tougher. But the Kits knew that winning 27 games overall and repeating as Central Suburban League South division champions offered some consolation for an ETHS squad that wasn’t expected to go this far this season.

They followed the example set by last year’s Final Four team and developed a chemistry and a brotherhood that helped continue the program success as far as wins and losses are concerned.

“We lost what, 10 guys from last year? It was our brotherhood that brought us all together,” explained Ojala. “We were picked to be at the bottom of the rankings, the bottom of the conference. Those seniors taught us a lot last year. We worked out together throughout the preseason, we worked out before and after school, and we spent so much time together.

“We took a page out of last year --- and the pieces fell in place.”

“27 wins is great, but this is not where we wanted it to end,” said Lane Jr. “A lot of people doubted us this year, but we proved them wrong. This is bigger than basketball because we’re a family, and a lot of credit should go to those seniors from last year, because they taught us how to build a family.”

With only one starter (Rocca) back from last year, Ellis noted that his team flew under the radar in the preseason because the so-called experts couldn’t see what was happening behind the scenes on a daily basis.

“I just got through telling them how people didn’t think you had the potential to get this far,” said the ETHS coach. “No one thought we’d win the conference or be here (in the sectional finals again). The trait that allowed us to do all of this is the love that we have for each other.

“Our guys bonded so well together, and the chemistry and the love were the biggest traits for this team. It shows the work they put in because you don’t have this kind of success without putting in the work. It’s a credit to them for making that kind of investment.

“Every day was the best part of the season for me, because you could see the brotherhood of the players. Everyone else didn’t see them in the gym at 6 a.m. every day --- when they didn’t HAVE to be --- without even being asked. They were such a self-motivated team. I’m most proud and happy about what they did, what others didn’t see.”