Wildkits Bounce Back, Bury Riverside-Brookfield

Evanston’s basketball team hasn’t experienced much adversity over the first month of the season until stumbling Thursday on the road at Deerfield.

The Wildkits bounced back in a big way on Saturday at the 14th annual Team Rose Shootout held at Mount Carmel.

Led by Theo Rocca’s game-high 21 points and a defensive effort that limited the losers to a total of just four field goals in the entire second half, Evanston buried Riverside-Brookfield by a 77-43 margin and improved to 8-1 on the year.

“That’s the way you bounce back,” said freshman guard Ben Ojala on his way to the lockerroom after the Kits turned another win into a running clock (slaughter rule) victory.

Minutes later, head coach Mike Ellis echoed those sentiments.

“All we knew was that what happened Thursday night hurt. And if we didn’t come out here and play with a sour taste in our mouths today, it could have hurt twice as bad,” Ellis explained. “We’ve learned something in every game we’ve played this year and Thursday was just another lesson for us. And we applied that lesson in this game. We didn’t respect Deerfield the way we needed to, and today we respected Riverside-Brookfield. You always have to respect the other team when you take the floor.

“The beauty of this game is that not just one guy was better today --- we were all better.”

Rocca rediscovered his shooting stroke, connecting on 5-of-7 attempts from 3-point range. He exploded for 16 points in the third period alone as Evanston turned a 37-26 halftime lead into a 60-35 advantage entering the final quarter.

That outburst followed the early scoring binge turned in by senior guard Kaidan Chatham, who finished with 14 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. And underclassmen Timi Ogunsanya (9 points) and Dion Lane Jr. (8 points) delivered solid back-up performances as the winners turned the game into a rout in the second half.

But the guy who made the biggest impact on the game was probably a player who didn’t score a single point.

Ian Peters continued to make life difficult for opposing point guards with his defense, frustrating R-B’s energetic floor general Vince Dockendorf and combining with his teammates to choke off the Bulldogs’ ability to get to the rim or find open 3-point looks after the first quarter.

Riverside-Brookfield, now 5-4, shot just 14-of-46 from the field and couldn’t get anything going on offense because Peters --- all 5-foot-10 and 150 pounds of him --- has developed into such a solid backcourt defender.

He’s a big reason the Wildkits have allowed more than 50 points to just one foe --- Rolling Meadows with 54 --- to date this season. His stat line Saturday --- 0-for-2 shooting with 2 assists --- didn’t come close to telling the full story.

Ellis noted that Peters, somewhat scrawny physically as a junior playing at the varsity level for the first time, got stronger in the weight room in the off-season at ETHS under the supervision of strength coach Mark Feldner just like the rest of the squad.

“Ian was outstanding for us today. His fingerprints are all over that victory for us, even though he didn’t score,” the coach praised. “He got us into our actions on offense and he’s one of the key reasons we’re playing well as a team. He’s one of the most unselfish players we have and he doesn’t care about scoring.

“You can see that he’s worked hard in the weight room. His balance is better when he’s on the ball and he’s able to accelerate or decelerate better when he’s on the ball. He’s quicker, I think, than last year. He took it to heart to get stronger on his own and he lifts faithfully and vigorously every day in my PE (physical education) class.”

“With the transfers we had coming in this year (Chatham and George Richardson) I knew I didn’t have to be “the guy” on offense, or anything like that,” Peters said. “So now I’m just trying to impact the game in a different way on defense. That’s where we get our energy as a team, on defense, and that’s what leads to good offense.

“I think I’m way stronger this year. Coach Feldner has us doing a lot of plyometric stuff and that’s given me a good lower body (strength). I can move a lot better. My first two years (in the basketball program) I didn’t really hit the weights at all. But after last year, I didn’t play basketball for three or four months --- I just lifted with my friends all the time.

“Now I feel better on the court. I don’t worry about offense, my main focus now is on defense.”

Evanston converted 58 percent of its field goal tries (30-of-52) in a return to normal on offense. The Kits canned 13-of-23 from 3-point range as seven different players connected from long range, a marked contrast to Thursday’s brutal shooting performance versus Deerfield.

The Wildkits held R-B to just one basket in the last four minutes of the first half while putting together a 12-0 run to break the contest open. Chatham tallied six points in that surge --- on a 3-point shot and again on an old-fashioned 3-point play --- and Ogunsanya added a pair of jumpers to stretch the lead to 37-26.

The Bulldogs went a full four minutes between baskets in the third quarter and ETHS finally put the running clock into effect late in the fourth quarter when the reserves took over.

“I thought our defensive play all-around was pretty solid,” said Ellis. “Riverside-Brookfield is not an easy team to guard. They have a really gritty point guard (Dockendorf), an elite Division I shooting guard (Daniel Loftus, who scored 15 points), and some bigs who are skilled, too.”

Evanston won’t be back in action until next Saturday when the Kits host Maine East at 3 p.m. in a Central Suburban League crossover contest.

The Wildkits also found out what the tournament draw will be for them at the Centralia Holiday Tournament that begins the day after Christmas. They’ll open tourney play Dec. 26th at 12:45 p.m. against Chicago Bogan, and will meet either Alton or Overton (Tenn.) in the second round. The tourney concludes on December 28th.