“When the ball tips off, it’s us against them. Evanston versus the world, nobody else matters but us in that moment,” those are the words of new addition and senior point guard Kaidan Chatham.
And that’s exactly what the varsity boys’ basketball team displayed, domination.
Over Thanksgiving week the kits competed in the 36th annual Chuck Mitchell Thanksgiving tournament hosted at Fenton Community High School. The Kits played four games overall and collected four wins, ultimately cementing themselves as champions of the tournament, and by any means was no mercy shown.
The Kits illustrated polished and non-selfish basketball with three blowout wins: 97-15 against Latin, 77-27 against Willowbrook, and 71-60 against Fremd. In the fourth game with the tournament championship on the line, Evanston triumphed and pulled out a 59-54 win against Rolling Meadows.
“One of the strengths of our team is our numbers. You know we don’t just count on one or two guys for production. We have a lot of guys that we believe in on this team, that can play well and step up at any point in time,” said head coach Mike Ellis.
“The flexibility to attack opponents with a variety of our players, a lot of skill, a lot of solid intelligence, and a lot of solid intangibles. And we believe in so many of our guys that I feel like we’re hard to guard when we have that flexibility. They’ve done a great job at stepping up at different moments, and recognizing, okay, which guy has the hot hand let’s play through him, these next couple of possessions.”
Let’s just say the hot hand was distributed to a variety of Evanston players throughout the tournament.
Senior guards Theo Rocca and Kaidan Chatman were awarded and named the All-tournament team. Rocca was also named the tournament MVP, but one player who contributed to the Evanston victories was junior guard Timi Ogunsanya.
Evanston’s big three in the tournament formed impactful stat lines over the four-game span.
Rocca shot 47.8 percent from the field, had the highest amount of total rebounds with 27, and the highest amount of points scored, ending up with 57 throughout the course tournament.
“A major role of mine is being a leader. A steady force, I have to be that guy to make sure we stay focused,” said Rocca.
Chatham shot 56.0 percent from the field. The transfer guard also dished out the most assists on the team with 17, and second most total rebounds snagging 20.
“I realized during the offseason in the summer that we were going to be a special group of individuals. During the offseason, we put in a lot of work, and our coaches implemented into us to take the front seat and not give up easily,” said Chatham.
Ogunsanya portrayed a special performance as being one of the youngest guys on the team. Ogunsanya finished with the second-highest points on the team with 47, shot 56.7 percent from the field, and shooting 50.0 percent from three-point range.
“As time came, I became more confident in my shot,” said Ogunsanya.
An undefeated kits team will try to defend home court on Friday, Dec. 6th at 6:30 p.m. against conference opponent Glenbrook North. The matchup will be Evanston’s home opener and conference opener.
“You only get one home opener and one conference opener. So with those two being the same game, we want to make sure we come out and play and set the tone, that we are going to be a tough team to be in Beardsley gym,” said Ellis.
And remember: Evanston vs Everybody.
