Kit girls fall in final seconds to New Trier
January 13, 2019
“Free throws killed us tonight,” Johnson said. Free throws have been a struggle for us all season. We’ve been working on it every day in practice, but we’re only shooting about 60 percent as a team. I think it’s all mental right now. — Brittanny Johnson, girls basketball coach
New Trier junior guard Tinah Hong sank a pair of free throws with 4.7 seconds remaining and sealed a 46-45 victory for the Trevians Friday night in the second game of the Bob Bost Classic at Beardsley Gym.
The Kits had the opportunity to win in the final moments, but junior Jayla Turchin, the game’s leading scorer, couldn’t get a shot off.
Turchin finished the night with 21 points (15 in the second half) and was really the only Wildkit who found any sort of offensive rhythm as no other Evanston player scored more than eight points. Turchin accounted for nearly half of her team’s points.
Turchin also scored six of Evanston’s points on a run of seven unanswered points to take a 34-31 lead into the fourth quarter.
“We were able to get Jayla the ball in spots where she can be successful, but the others didn’t step up at all. We can’t be that one dimensional,” coach Brittanny Johnson said. “When teams are sagging off on some people, we need others to step up and make shots.”
The Kits cold shooting continued at the free throw line as the team converted on only 9-18 attempts. Evanston had a chance to stretch their lead to 3 with just under 20 seconds left but junior Kayla Henning missed the first free-throw of a one-and-one situation.
Senior forwards Rebecca Goldman and Taite Ryan and Junior guard Ava Zaslavsky all scored in double digits for the Trevians with 13, 12 and 10 points, respectively.
With the loss, Evanston dropped to 14-6 overall and 5-1 in CSL conference play. New Trier improved to 15-4 and an identical 5-1 in CSL play as the Kits and Trevians split their two games this year. Evanston won 54-40 earlier this season in Winnetka.
Evanston will play at Glenbrook South next Friday night.
The defeat marked the first time New Trier has beaten Evanston during Johnson’s coaching career with the Wildkits.
