No one wearing an Evanston basketball uniform was interested in a repeat performance.
Less than 24 hours after staggering past Glenbrook North in one of the lowest scoring games in program history in the past 20 years, the Wildkits responded in a big way in a Saturday afternoon matinee performance against LaLumiere of Indiana.
Cranking their transition game up into the highest gear, the Kits rang up 61 points in the first half and demolished the Lakers 94-39 at Beardsley Gym for their sixth consecutive victory to open the season.
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The visitors never knew what hit them. Theo Rocca, held scoreless in that 38-29 trimming of GBN, poured in 18 points and claimed 9 rebounds while only playing half the contest. Rocca was one of four ETHS players in double figures along with George Richardson (14 points, 5 rebounds), Kaidan Chatham (14 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists) and freshman Ben Ojala (10 points, 3 assists.
Ian Peters and Ryan Ivory each contributed 9 points for the winners, who shot 55 percent (39-of-71) from the field and ran the Lakers out of the gym.
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“We were worried about them coming into the game, because they had two or three guys capable of scoring 20 points in a transition game,” said Evanston head coach Mike Ellis. “We really emphasized winning the transition game on offense, and winning the transition game on defense, and that’s how we did it. We beat them at their own game.
“I think they were embarrassed about last night and we had a couple of practices this week that weren’t good. They all understood that they had to be better than they were last night. They were really focused in the shootaround (Saturday morning) and they showed up with a deeper intent to play well.
“Everybody played better than they played last night.”
That included Rocca, the senior leader who wasn’t able to set any kind of a tone on offense Friday. Saturday, he combined with younger brother Vito for a highlight film play on a fast break opportunity that started Evanston’s scoring surge.
Theo fed Vito in the lane, and the ETHS sophomore spun 360 degrees to flip in the layup as the Beardsley crowd came to life. That was part of a 29-point splash --- including 14 straight points that closed out the period --- as the hosts built a 29-10 advantage.
The margin grew to 61-17 by halftime as ETHS did all of the scoring in the quarter’s final four minutes, a 17-0 run capped by Theo Rocca’s 3-point bomb with two seconds left on the clock.
Ellis knew his senior leader would bounce back.
“I never doubt him,” declared the Evanston coach. “If he’s down, he won’t be down for long. Everybody was motivated to play a full 32 minutes today. It’s really all about us. It’s Evanston against Evanston every time we play --- for 31 games during the season --- and we have to put our best foot forward no matter who we’re playing. We didn’t do that last night.”
LaLumiere turned the ball over 15 times and was paced by Will Chang with 16 points. The losers, who feature players from Taiwan, Australia, the Netherlands, Germany and Uzbekistan along with New York, Georgia and Minnesota, shot just 27 percent (12-of-45) overall.
“What I’ve seen so far from these guys is that whenever our coaches make a teaching point to them, they buy into it right away” Ellis added. “I credit our players for that because they take things to heart and they do it instantly, in the middle of a game, not the next day at practice. That’s a big part of the sustainability we’ve had so far as a team.
“We just have to keep getting better.”
