Evanston Township High School’s quest for an Illinois High School Association Class 4A boys basketball championship ended Friday night when the team lost to Benet Academy 56-47 in a semifinal game in Champaign.
“We have a team full of great high school basketball players, great high character players, talented players, caring players,” Wildkits coach Mike Ellis said after the game.
Evanston took a 2-0 lead to start the game, but never led after that.
The Redwings led by 22 points at one point until Evanston made an 11-point run to end the game.
The Wildkits will play Rich Township High School for third place at 9:30 a.m. Saturday.
Ellis said the team “played a little bit tentatively” offensively but strong defensively.
“We weathered an early storm where we fell behind,” he said, referring to early play that saw Evanston fall behind 13-6 after one quarter
Evanston shot went only 4-22 from three-point land. Ellis credited Benet with playing good defense but said the Wildkits’ shots just didn’t drop.
“When you shoot like that, there’s not one single answer,” he said. “We had fingers in our face on all those looks.”
Wildkits senior Theo Rocca scored a team-high 13 points, while senior George Richardson added 12. No other player broke into double figures.
Sophomore Vito Rocca led all rebounders with 7, followed by Theo Rocca with 5, while George Richardson and Kaidan Chatham had 4 apiece.
Ellis had a lot of praise for his squad after the disappointing result.
“You know, that’s a lot of skill sets that lead to winning,” Ellis said. “Winning on the court, winning off the court, and that’s what I’m most proud of this group about. They’re able to take the winning mindset and attitude about what it means to be an influence, a positive influence, and apply that to a sport that they love. That’s a beautiful thing.”
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ETHS boys basketball: Benet too much as they run over Wildkits 56-47 in state semis is from Evanston RoundTable, Evanston's most trusted source for unbiased, in-depth journalism.