Last year, it was David vs. Goliath on New Trier’s homecourt … and David won. This year, it’s not David and Goliath– it’s the clash of the titans.
The Kits are coming in with their best teams since the Blake Peters, Lance Jones era and they are off to an extremely hot start. Evanston boasts a booming 18-4 record and sits at 5-1 in the CSL, good for second place. The Kits narrowly lost their Saturday showdown with Metamora in the final seconds but have still won 4 of their last 5 games. Their only conference loss came against Deerfield—a team they dismantled last Friday night in Beardsley.
New Trier is also off to another stellar start coming off of last year’s third-place finish down at State. Despite losing substantial production from last year, the Trevs are right back in a position to make it down to State again. They are entering this pivotal game at the top of the conference with an 18-6 (6-0) record.
The Trevs are led by Junior Christopher Kirkpatrick, who is, for all intents and purposes, the best player in the CSL. Kirkpatrick regularly scores in the 20s for New Trier and is playing his best basketball as of late. He torched the Kits in Beardsley gym last year as a sophomore scoring 15 points (13 of which came in the third quarter). The junior guard dropped 37 points, 7 assists, and 4 rebounds in their last conference game on Friday against Maine South. He also had 26 points in a loss against Kenwood, one of the best teams in the state.
Kirkpatrick is accompanied by senior Colby Smith who is also a big scorer for New Trier. Smith is also committed to WashU in St. Louis, where he’ll join the older Rocca brother as teammates next year.
Both Kirkpatrick and Smith dropped 29 points in their double-overtime victory over Oak Park on Monday.
Even though New Trier killed Evanston in Beardsley and finished third at State last year, and Evanston got knocked out in the first round of the playoffs, they still have a bad taste in their mouth. A much worse ETHS team beat New Trier in their gym last year to close out the season series. Evanston won a tight game down the stretch that can only really be described as a rock fight. Both teams shot the ball well below 40% in the game. With Evanston up 37-35, on New Trier’s last possession, Kirkpatrick and Logan Feller (senior last year) missed two open threes before the buzzer horned and Evanston students rushed the court.
If Evanston wants to win this Friday night, they have to play at an elite level. Here are a few keys to the game for the Kits:
Contain Kirkpatrick (at least a little)
ETHS isn’t going to win if Kirkpatrick drops 37 on Friday. He scores well and is obviously extremely hot coming off of 37 and 29-point performances into this one. It’s going to be nearly impossible to fully take him out of the game on Friday but we cannot let him continue on this hot streak.
If Kirkpatrick heats up early, it’ll spell trouble. He had 20 points in the first half of their last game; that will cause problems for Evanston if he gets off to that type of start Friday. Also, when he is scoring at a high level, that opens the floor for the rest of his teammates to get in on the action as well. Look at the stat line against Maine South, he had 37 points on 18 shots but still had 7 assists. Plain and simple, that can’t happen on Friday.
Theo and Kaidan need to score
When Kaidan and Theo are scoring the ball efficiently, ETHS tends to score in the 60s. When they don’t, the games sometimes dip into the 40s. In Deerfield’s demolition, Chatham got hot early and finished the game with 15 and Theo worked his way up to 14 after early struggles.
Last year, Evanston beat NT when we only scored 37. That’s not going to happen this year. New Trier is much more offense-oriented, and it’d be shocking if they didn’t score at least 40 on Friday. If the Kits want the win, they are going to have to see the ball go through the net more than last year.
Ojala needs to give offense
Off the bench, Ojala has shown he can be the spark that ignites the Kits offense. Last Friday, he came off the bench and got hot in the second half. He hit 3 threes on only 5 attempts and was huge for Evanston’s momentum.
This will be the freshman’s first action against NT in his young career, and he will be the youngest player on the court. It’s very rare to see a freshman getting significant time in a New Trier-Evanston game, so that will definitely be something to keep an eye on. He can’t get caught up in the moment and start forcing up bad shots. Ojala is most effective when he’s not forcing shots, playing good defense, and knocking down open threes from the wing when he can get off a clean shot.
ETHS needs to take advantage of the fact that they finally aren’t outsized by NT
For the last few years at Evanston, we haven’t had a true big man who does work in the post. Without a big center, Evanston has gone to small ball over the last few seasons. In past seasons, New Trier has had big teams with big, heavy centers that have allowed them to dominate over our smaller team. This year, that isn’t the case. While Evanston still doesn’t exactly have a true post center, New Trier finally doesn’t have a big force in the middle and is not going to outsize Evanston on Friday.
Evanston needs to capitalize on this, whether it’s by grabbing offensive rebounds, blocking shots, or scoring in the paint. This has to be a point of big point of emphasis on Friday night.
Kits must force the Trevs to make hard baskets in the paint; no open threes
Smith and Kirkpatrick can shoot the lights out, and they will if Evanston leaves them open from beyond the arc. New Trier consistently produces quality shooters, but this year’s squad is particularly deadly from three.
Evanston’s a big, physical team and we have the best chance to win Friday if we make this a grueling hard-nosed game. If that means over-closing out on a three and letting them drive into the paint and absorb contact, so be it. Evanston can’t let them beat us out on the perimeter. We have to make them out-tough us, because quite frankly, I think its highly unlikely that New Trier out-physicals this Evanston team.
Friday is huge for both teams. Obviously, bragging rights are on the line in one of the biggest games in Illinois this season but also the CSL is on the line. This game has huge playoff implications. Expect the crowd on Friday to be electric inside of New Trier’s newly built gym.
