The Kits were given a harsh introduction to the CSL on Tuesday night with a 68-35 blowout loss to Maine South. The Kits lagged behind the Hawks throughout the Night. Evanston’s short amount of effort led to limited offensive production in the conference opener.
“Our entire team lacked effort today. Every single time a ball looked like it might go out Maine
South was sprinting over to try and save it, but we barely turned our heads,” remarked head Coach Brittany Johnson.
The Hawks were first out of the blocks, taking an early 8-2 lead. The kits followed up with short-lived momentum and impressive drives from Evanston sophomore guards Brielle Rosmond and Peyton King. The kits would tighten the score to 11-8 with 2:35 left in the first quarter. But, a beautifully threaded pass from Maine South’s sophomore guard Hayden Fahy to Senior forward Asia Kobylarczyk for an easy two-point score, that would spark cheers from Hawks fans, marking a turning point in the game.
From there the Hawks’ defense was able to settle in, confining the Kit’s offense to one source of scoring, the free throw line. There Evanston only converted seven free throws on fifteen attempts as the first half would finish 38-22 in favor of the visitors.
“I did not think we played particularly poorly in the first half, we had a lot of opportunities but opportunities don’t matter when you make as many mental mistakes as we did,” said Johnson.
The second half went about as well for the Kits as the end of the first half did. Senior Captains Katie Barker and Kobylarczyk consistently found holes in the Kits’ zone defense, leading to wide-open three-pointers for the hawks and a twenty-two-point performance for Kobylarczyk. On the other hand, the Kits’ offense struggled to break down the Hawks’ compact defense. They only managed eighteen points in the second half.
“We went into the game with a clear game plan, but we executed it extremely poorly,” commented Johnson.
Maine South is just the first of a series of conference opponents the Kits will host with the likes of Deerfield and New Trier coming to Beardsley in the coming weeks.
Before those clashes, the Kits will travel and take on Glenbrook North on Dec. 6th at 7:00 pm.
The Spartans ended the Kits season last year in the regional finals, a game that coach Johnson described as “simply Heartbreaking”.
