Wildkits Fall In Regular Season Finale

Central Suburban League South division Player of the Year Theo Rocca played four minutes and 13 seconds in Wednesday night’s CSL Showcase event against Niles North.

So did all-conference guard Kaidan Chatham.

So did all-conference forward George Richardson.

Evanston head coach Mike Ellis stayed true to his pre-game vow to spread the court time out to every player on the basketball squad and the result was a 57-52 loss to the Vikings in the regular season finale at Beardsley Gym.

Forced to combine the annual Senior Night celebration with what has turned out to be nothing more than an exhibition crossover game between the North and South divisions at the end of the year, Ellis did everything but summon players out of the stands. All 17 players who suited up saw action in the first half, including one senior who hadn’t played in a game in two years because of an injury.

The Wildkits, who defeated North 68-64 in overtime when the two teams met in Skokie last month, fell to 25-5 on the season. Evanston’s No. 1 sectional seed won’t be affected by the loss and the two teams could meet again in the Class 4A sectional championship game at New Trier on March 7th.

The CSL doesn’t recognize the matchup of the two division winners as an official “championship” contest and the Vikings (25-6) would have a difficult time even claiming bragging rights based on the two games this season. Evanston’s starters beat North on their home floor, and Wednesday the Wildkit reserves almost came from behind to pull out a victory versus the Viking bench.

To his credit, North coach Glenn Olson didn’t play HIS starters after the visitors built a 48-39 lead. And with seldom-used ETHS senior Emmett Sehgal, juniors Elliott Pratt, Tristen Wilcox, Monte Dillard and sophomore Tate Schroeder working as a unit, the Wildkits made things interesting in the final period.

Sehgal fired in a 3-point basket with 2 minutes, 50 seconds left in regulation to pull the hosts within 55-49, and a minute later senior Ryan Ivory split a pair of free throw chances to make it 55-50.

Pratt’s drive and score brought the ETHS crowd to its feet with 1:16 left on the clock. But the Kits could get no closer and North’s Rayne Panzal drained a pair of free throws to clinch the victory with 18 seconds remaining. The winners only tallied one basket in the fourth quarter.

Ellis said he wasn’t tempted to call on his first string even though it was a winnable game in the final period.

“I had the lineups (playing combinations) all drafted ahead of time yesterday for all through the game,” said Ellis. “We knew in advance who was playing and when. We wanted to reward everybody on this team and we didn’t want emotions to come into play when it came to subbing.

“We only had eight home games this year so we had to have Senior Night tonight. Our only other choice was to do it against New Trier, who we were playing for the conference championship, or tonight in a showcase game that has no implications for any kind of a trophy.

“Tonight we needed to celebrate more than our 12th graders and their four years here. This is the last game we’ll play with no implications and we wanted to showcase everyone on the team. I think our seniors understand that they’ve needed these other guys to push them every day for us to get where we want to go. It takes all of us.”

Evanston led 20-14 early in the second quarter when Ben Ojala connected on a 3-point shot, but the Viking starters came alive against the ETHS reserves after that. Reid Olson scored 11 points in the period and Hunter Gawron added 10 to boost the visitors to a 35-26 lead at halftime.

Evanston committed six turnovers in the quarter and finished the game with 15.

“I don’t think anyone in the locker room was pleased with the way we played in the first half,” Ellis said. “During every timeout (in the second quarter) I kept telling them if you don’t turn the ball over, you’ll get layups. That was just a frustrating amount of turnovers. We needed to value the basketball a little better.

“In the first half we were playing to play and Niles North was playing to win. They did get excited when they cut the lead to under 10 and we did get some stops.”

Fourteen players scored for the Kits, including a game-high 7 points for Schroeder. The 6-foot-4 sophomore also contributed three rebounds and Ivory snatched seven rebounds and netted four points for the hosts.

Senior Ben Crabbe suited up for the first time since his sophomore season, when a back injury curtailed his playing career. He’s served as a team manager in the program since then and played about six minutes Wednesday night.

“I’m so happy for Ben,” Ellis said. “For him to be able to take the court after a setback like that was great. He was one of the better players in his grade (as a sophomore) and to have something taken away from you like that, when it’s out of your control, has to be really tough.

“I thought Tate played really well tonight. I liked his poise, and he’s a threat to score all over the floor. He has a good feel for the game, and hopefully he’s getting more and more comfortable every minute he’s out there. Having the opportunity to practice with the varsity all year and go up against guys like Theo Rocca and Jayden Rodriguez really gave him the opportunity to develop his game.”

Many of the head coaches in the CSL, at least in the South division, probably wouldn’t mind seeing the set-up that matches first place finishers against first place finishers, second place against second place, etc. at the end of the year go away. Most schools in the North division still refuse to schedule teams in the South in basketball and the forced conclusion to the season doesn’t seem to be a solution to that mindset.

There are two unnamed schools in the North that haven’t played at ETHS once in the 16 seasons since Ellis became the Wildkits’ head coach.

“Niles North is the only (North division) team that wanted to play us this year,” Ellis said. “My take on this is that I wish we had the opportunity to play more North division teams. It’s hard to say it’s a conference when it’s forced on everyone in the last game of the year.

“It would be nice to play at least two crossover games like we used to. Then there would be more value to a night like tonight, too. Right now, it’s like strangers playing each other. As a coach, I WANT to play teams that are favored to beat us because of your sectional resume (for seeding purposes). And I know some of the other coaches have voiced their frustrations about how hard it is to schedule non-conference games.”

The Wildkits will shift their focus now to postseason play at the Highland Park Regional. They’re matched against the Leyden-Senn winner on Wednesday, Feb. 26th at 6 p.m.