Wildkits Rise To Occasion In Rematch

Evanston’s entrance into a new Thanksgiving basketball tournament this season didn’t take place under ideal circumstances.

Why? Because Rolling Meadows was also in the field and the Wildkits had already scheduled the Mustangs for a home-and-home series on the non-conference portion of their slate beginning last year. And few head coaches would sign up to play the same out-of-conference team twice in the same season on purpose.

Sure enough, the Mustangs handed ETHS a 64-56 pool play defeat --- in a game that wasn’t really that close --- and denied the Kits a chance to play for the championship at the Fenton Thanksgiving Tournament.

And anyone who witnessed that early season contest would come away thinking that man-for-man, Evanston didn’t match up well against this particular foe.

That’s why the rematch between the two teams Saturday afternoon at Beardsley Gymnasium was a shocker.

Jonny Dickson turned in the defensive performance of his career, limiting the Mustangs’ All-State candidate Ian Miletic to just 10 points, and Morgan Brown poured in a career-high 21 points as the Wildkits turned the tables on the Mustangs and scored their best win of the season.

Performing at such a high level at both ends of the floor that now head coach Mike Ellis is concerned that they might have already peaked --- in the second week of January --- the Kits rolled to a 66-43 victory in a complete reversal of form from the first meeting.

Now 14-7 overall, Evanston shook off a dismal offensive performance in the previous game against Niles North by firing in 12-of-27 3-point field goal attempts and racking up 41 points in the second half while dropping the Mustangs to 13-4 on the year.

“I’m stunned, too,” said Ellis. “I’d like to think that we’ve gotten better since that first game, but as you know, progress and growth aren’t linear. There are ups and downs to it and today we looked like we’re at the heights. Or are we going to build on this, and take it even higher?

“I’d say this was our best complete game of the season, encompassing all 32 minutes. Rolling Meadows has dominated us the last two times we’ve played them. Their skills are so tough to match up with, and there are not a lot of weaknesses in that team. They’ve got loads of offensive talent, but our team defense was solid, as good as it’s been all season on and off the ball.”

That defensive effort was keyed by Dickson --- with a little help from his friends like Tyler Dennis and Theo Rocca. Dickson, despite giving up six inches in size to the 6-7 Miletic, limited the junior standout to 3-of-10 shooting from the field after Miletic had torched a succession of would-be ETHS defenders for 25 points the first week of the season.

It’s not the first time that Dickson has held down an opponent’s top offensive player to half his scoring average, and it probably won’t be the last time. He also chipped in 5 points and 4 assists on offense.

“We always put Jonny on the other team’s best offensive player, but that’s the first time he’s had to guard someone with that type of size and length,” Ellis pointed out. “He was phenomenal today. He relished the challenge. It all came down to desire. There was nothing strategic about it. He had to chase around screens and not let Miletic get to his sweet (shooting) spots. He also had a lot of help from the other players.”

“He’s tall. When you go up against someone that much bigger than you are, your mindset is the key,” Dickson explained. “I just try not to let my guy score and take it one possession at a time. I think it starts with your preparation in practice, taking every drill and whatever you do in practice and applying it in a game.

“He had size on me, but I have speed and agility and I tried to get up in him and take advantage of that. The coaches said to keep him off his left hand (Miletic is a left-handed shooter) and I had a lot of back side help from my guys (teammates) and that made me look good. It was an underdog situation for me, but I was able to stop him.”

Miletic only scored one field goal in the second half for the Mustangs, who trailed 25-21 at halftime. He and teammate Jack Duffer tied for team scoring honors with 10 points apiece for Meadows, which was coming off a loss to Barrington earlier in the week.

For ETHS, the 1-2 punch of Brown (21 points) and Rocca (15) got back on track after a loss to Niles North in which the pair combined to miss 20 shots from the field.

“Those two guys really responded well today,” said Ellis. “Morgan played a great game. He shot it with confidence today, and I think all of them all felt their shots were going to go in. We played a great game today, and now we have to build on it.”

Brown wasn’t even sure he’d be able to play Saturday. He injured his knee in Thursday’s practice but wanted another shot at the Mustangs.

“My knee was swollen pretty bad, but I decided to tough it out and play,” he said. “I didn’t think I’d be able to do much on offense, so my focus was really on defense. I wanted to make sure we were talking all the time out there, talking on their inbounds plays and making sure they didn’t get any easy baskets.”

Brown connected on 8-of-15 field goal attempts overall and erupted for 12 points in the third quarter when the hosts broke the game open. A 3-point basket by sophomore Timi Ogunsanya (career high 9 points) and two free throws by Brandon Watson down the stretch pushed the ETHS advantage to 44-32 by the end of the third quarter.

The Wildkits are scheduled to visit Niles West Tuesday and will play a makeup game at home on Wednesday versus Deerfield.