ETHS girls’ basketball opened up conference play with a stunning destruction of their bitter rivals, New Trier. The Kits ran out 67-35 winners on the Trevians’ home court. The Kits were completely dominant throughout the game, forcing 28 turnovers, annihilating the Trevians to a point where a running clock slaughter rule had to be put into place.
“We have not won a game like that in a long time. We executed the game plan to perfection, played with a lot of energy, and played the way we are supposed to play,” said head coach Brittanny Johnson.
The team was led by outstanding performances from sophomore Charity Bryant and junior Payton King. The duo combined for 48 of the Wildkits’ points, with Bryant putting up 29 points and King 19 points. Bryant also contributed four steals, and King got seven rebounds. Both players are now finally living up to their potential, something that they had not really done before tonight, with Bryant struggling with consistency and King,being out injured, most of last season after suffering a concussion against the Trevians.
“[Bryant and King] were the players that I had the highest expectations for going into the season. We talked a lot about Charity 2.0, her wanting to be the best version of herself. I thought that she had a rough first two games, but tonigh,t she did everything extremely well,” praised Johnson. “ As for Payton, she was gutted that she was unable to play in last year’s game, and I think she wanted to get something off her back tonight, and it’s safe to say that she was able to do that.”
It was clear that the game was going to be one to remember for the Kits right from the start. Bryant would lay it in through contact for the game’s first bucket and then converted a pair of free throws to make it an early 4-0 Kits lead. The Trevians would hit a three to make it a one-point game two minutes in. The Kits’ offense would then explode, going on a 16-2 run for the rest of the opening frame with seniors Havana van Wyk and Sandra Deeney contributing big three-pointers alongside fifteen first-quarter points from Bryant.
“I thought our defense played very well in both the half and full court tonight. That allowed for a lot of our offensive production, especially in transition and especially in the first quarter,” commented Johnson.
Neither team could manage much on offense in a much tighter and competitive second quarter that ended with the Kits going into halftime with a 29-15 advantage.
The start of the second half for the Kits would resemble their blistering start to the first. The Kits scored the first twelve points, including four straight buckets by King. She showed off her excellent finishing skills by beating defenders under the rim with highly contested layups. A fast break started with a steal by freshman Simone Hewitt and ended with a layup by Deeney as time expired in the third quarter, putting the Kits up 51-25 going into the final frame.
With the game now being played with a running clock, the Kits showed no mercy to the rivals, leaving both King and Bryant on the floor to add to both the Kits’ and their own personal tallies.
The win against the Trevians now means the Kits (2-2 overall) are 1-0 in conference play. The team hopes they can improve on last season’s abysmal 3-7 conference record. They face another conference test against Deerfield this Friday, this time at Beardsley.
