When the first points of the game were scored by senior guard Kailey Starks, the entire crowd at Glenbrook North knew it was the Kits to lose.
Senior Zuri Ransom and Starks carried the workload on offense, combining for 41 points to propel Evanston to a 57-50 win in Northbrook on Thursday night. The Kits advanced to 6-1 on the season, while the Spartans fell to 4-3 after losing their third straight game.
After baskets by Starks and Ransom dropped and junior Jayla Warren continued to rack up rebounds, the Kits (6-1, 3-0 CSL) quickly jumped out to a large 17-6 lead at the end of the first quarter.
“[Warren] has been playing well for us. We’ve been working on her just being more of a bully inside,” head coach Brittanny Johnson said. “[She] really created an inside presence. Obviously, people understand that we have three very good senior guards, but there’s a hole in the middle, and we’re trying to get her to fill that hole.”
As the Kits continued their scoring pace in the second quarter, junior Alice Lemmon provided more opportunities for the Kits by putting on a rebounding clinic. Starks knocked down two free throws, which gave her sixteen points at the end of the first half and the Kits a 34-19 lead.
However, the Spartan offense caught a spark coming out of the locker room. GBN’s Alexis Myers knocked down multiple baskets to push the Spartans (4-3, 0-3) to within ten points of the Kits. Evanston struggled to make shots late in the game, but the defense locked down in the fourth, despite the Spartans cutting the Kits’ lead to 52-45.
“I wanted to push the tempo. We wanted to just be better defensively. [The Spartans] were just missing a lot of shots,” Johnson said. “I felt like our lead was more so about them missing shots and not us really getting stops. In the second half, [GBN] did a really good job of hitting shots, and then we went cold.”
The Kits closed the door on the last-minute push from the Spartans after Ransom answered GBN’s challenge by holding onto the ball and draining three free throws in the last two minutes.
“When we give up a lead like that, we have to stay focused.” Ransom stated. “We [needed] to take the right shots and avoid turnovers. Winning is always nice, but this win could have been better. We need to start strong and finish strong.”
The Kits will look to add to their five-game win streak against DePaul College Prep on Saturday, Dec. 9 at 2 p.m.
