Evanston boys basketball coach Mike Ellis said the week of practice leading up to victories over Niles West on Friday and Homewood-Flossmoor on Saturday had been fun — for the coaches.
In other words, the opposite of fun for the players, who were coming off a two-point upset loss to Naperville North in overtime on Jan. 21.
“It was a tough week of practices for us,” said senior Chris Hamil, an Evanston-resident who led the Wildkits with 17 points in the 60-48 home win over Homewood-Flossmoor. “I feel like (Ellis) amped up the level of practice four times. It was just really aggressive. We were at it and had (senior) Elyjah (Williams) bleeding every day in practice.”
Obviously, bloodshed had not been Ellis’ goal. What he sought was the intensity, specifically on defense, the Wildkits had exhibited during the first two months of the season. Ellis said that intensity had been waning since the start of the new year.
“It wasn’t just the Naperville North game, it was something we could foresee for the last couple weeks,” Ellis said. “Coming out of the holiday break, we just weren’t in tune, focused and locked in like we were in November and December. Our guys felt that message and they wanted to play this weekend to let the hard week of practice pay off.”
Ellis added: “Instead of just getting through practice (this week), we got better at practice.”
A 74-43 win over Niles West on Friday in Evanston was a good start to the weekend, as Evanston improved to 7-0 in the Central Suburban South.
But the weekend’s biggest test was Saturday’s visit from south-suburban powerhouse Homewood-Flossmoor in the marquee matchup of the War on the Shore tripleheader at Evanston’s Beardsley Gym.
Against the Vikings (15-7), the Wildkits (18-3) turned in a defensive performance reminiscent of their November and December-selves. Evanston held the visitors to just 22 points in the first half, and under 50 for the game, which is a team goal in every game.
“I think it was good to defend our own home court and show everybody what our identity is. We pride ourselves on holding teams under 50 points,” said senior guard Malcolm Townsel, an Evanston resident who scored 11 points.
Evanston struggled in the third quarter as its 14-point halftime lead was reduced to just three.
But then the defense stepped up to help the Wildkits regain control of the game: Townsel had a steal and dunk late in the third quarter, senior guard and Purdue signee Nojel Eastern (14 points) had a steal and dunk early in the fourth, and sophomore Jaheim Holden had a steal and missed layup, which was tipped in by Hamil.
“We used defense to get our momentum back,” Townsel said.
Ellis said he also was pleased by the way Evanston shared the basketball in the fourth quarter, as it built the lead back up to 14 points.
Ellis said this showed the Wildkits had learned from the Naperville North game when they squandered a 13-point lead in the second half.
“Against Naperville North, it was kind of sit back and watch Nojel try to dig us out of a hole, after we lost the momentum,” Ellis said. “(Saturday), we played as a collective team and played through one another better. When you do those things, it’s a lot easier to get back momentum when you lose it, because it’s not (all on) just one guy.”
Williams added 12 points and five rebounds off the bench for the Wildkits. Normally a starter, Williams was replaced in the starting five by junior Matt Hall, whom Ellis said was rewarded for his hard work in practice.
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In other War on the Shore action, Jacobs defeated New Trier 63-49 and Loyola topped St. Patrick 69-60.
Dan Shalin is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
Twitter @Pioneer_Press