The Wildkits continued their winning streak over the Trevians on January 9th. Evanston has come into this season severely understaffed compared to last year after graduating 4 starters in Theo Rocca, Kaiden Chatham, George Richardson, and Ian Peters. On Friday, the new core starters took it into their own hands.
Coming into the game, Evanston knew they wanted to focus on their awareness, as that was one of the key components to winning this game and one the Kits have recently struggled with. Not only does playing this historic rivalry at home give Evanston an advantage with their fans’ heavy spirit, but it also gives them a chance to set the tone for what the Trevians should expect at their next matchup later in the season.
The first quarter started slowly, with the Kits leading 9-6. Evanston was not having any luck from behind the arc, going 0/3 in the first quarter. But neither was New Trier, who went 0/2 from three and 3/16 from the field.
Luckily for the Kits, they started to get hot later in the game. Senior Timi Ogunsanya got the hot hand, making 4 of his 6 shots from three.
“At halftime, I realized I had a ton of open opportunities to score, but I didn’t take any of them, so I knew I had to step up in the second half,” stated Ogunsanya.
Once Evanston lit the spark, the KitPit fueled the flame with their unreal energy. The student section was bursting at the seams with the number of people who showed up to support the team.
After the game against GBN on December 11th, head coach Mike Ellis harped on how the team was playing with each other and not through each other, and how they needed to make better connections to excel as a team. On Friday night, Ellis definitely thought they had strengthened those bonds.
“I think a prime example of that is one game ago, Ben (Ojala) had his career high in points, and tonight he got his career high in assists. It shows he didn’t say “Oh, I’m a scorer now” and stayed within himself. He and everyone else did a good job knowing that the game is won on many areas of the ball,” remarked Ellis.
Along with Ojala’s career high of 10 assists, he also scored 11 points, giving the sophomore his first-ever double-double of his high school career.
After a tense battle down the stretch, Evanston pulled through with a 67-59 win. Evanston’s ability to execute late continues to define its success this season.
