Beardsley Gymnasium saw fresh faces during the first half of Tuesday’s matchup with Carmel Catholic, with a roster of underclassmen—in addition to senior guard Brandon Watson—starting the game for the Wildkits.
“Those guys have shown their dedication to the team and invested the time in deserving that starting position,” says head coach Mike Ellis. “We try to show everybody that hard work gets rewarded. We wanted to give them that opportunity.”
The lineup change wasn’t enough to energize Evanston, with Carmel picking up the road victory, 42-39.
While Evanston (7-3) hung around with four of its seniors on the bench for most of the first half—going into the second half down just three—the team couldn’t pull together in the second.
After halftime, four of Evanston’s seniors—including forward Morgan Brown, who led Evanston with nine points—returned to the court, but couldn’t get the offense going, a problem that plagued the Kits all night against Carmel (4-6). Evanston finished the game shooting just over 30 percent from the field.
“We had a solid game on Saturday against Marian Catholic,” says Ellis. “We wanted to lead out in the second half with that same lineup. They didn’t come out with that same type of energy and effort that they did on Saturday.”
As the Kits sputtered on offense, their defense kept them in the game but still struggled to slow down Carmel’s top scorers that night. Carmel’s point guard Kaleb Jackson scored 20 points, while Bryce Smith netted 11.
“[Jonny] Dickson had a tough cover on [Jackson],” says Ellis. “He’s a really good player, Kaleb Jackson. He’s a guy that’s hard to cover. When he gets half their points, it’s hard. We don’t have point guards scoring half our points the way they do.”
In their upcoming home match against Maine South on Friday, Dec. 15 the Kits look to secure a winning conference record by continuing the momentum on the defense and energizing the offense.
“We didn’t take advantage of opportunities [tonight],” says coach Ellis. “Our defense was fine. We gave them 42 points. But we need to be more productive on the offensive. Friday, [we play] Maine South. Same defense, so we just got to play a little smarter.”
