Evanston’s first road trip of the girls basketball season didn’t really require this much traveling.
But Friday’s contest at Milwaukee Academy of Science in Wisconsin may have set a school record in that category.
The Wildkits turned the ball over a staggering 37 times --- at least half of which were traveling violations --- and lost their second straight game to open the 2022 season, falling 53-40 to the host Lady Novas.
Find out what's happening in Evanstonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Since high school teams in Wisconsin play 18-minute halves, not quarters like in Illinois, that statistic might be slightly skewed since all of those turnovers came in 36 minutes of on-court action, not 32. But that’s still a 30-plus turnover pace and something the Wildkits need to fix sooner, not later.
At least that’s what ETHS head coach Brittanny Johnson thinks.
Find out what's happening in Evanstonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
“Like I said after our first game, we are really struggling to find that one person who can calm us down and get us organized,” Johnson said. “This isn’t a bad team, we’re just not playing well. For some reason we’re playing with a lot of fear and it’s really disappointing to have so many turnovers.
“Most of those turnovers were unforced. I think (the officials) are a little more liberal with the hand-checking up here than in Illinois, and that sped us up. It took us awhile to get used to that.”
The visitors mustered just enough offense --- when they weren’t losing possession --- to build a 16-11 advantage on a pair of free throws by Ciara Gentle and another by Dafina Ukaj. The Milwaukee squad, however, responded with a 22-3 run to close out the first half behind star Beauty Waheed, who led all scorers with 20 points and added 11 rebounds and 3 blocked shots.
Evanston did manage to close the gap in the second half even after both Ariana Milam-Pryor (5 points) and Kailey Starks (7 points, 10 rebounds) fouled out midway through the period. Junior guard Zuri Ransom (team-high 14 points) was hacked on a 3-point shot attempt and converted all 3 tosses to bring the Kits within 41-32, but they only mustered 8 points the rest of the way.
Only a late 3-point bucket by Ukaj (career high 9 points) prevented the losers from the embarrassment of totaling more turnovers than points for the game.
“We have a lot to fix,” Johnson summed up. The Wildkits are on the road again Monday at Buffalo Grove.
