Evanston runs away from Prospect

Evanston's boys basketball team has been mentioned in many circle as a contender for the Class 4A state championship this season.

The Wildkits, who finished third at the state tournament last year, showed their mettle again on Friday with a 65-37 win over Prospect at St. Viator's Majkowski Classic.

"Absolutely, this is a tournament that prepares you to compete against some of the very best teams around," Prospect coach John Camardella said. "It can be a tall task to play games where you're playing such strong competition on consecutive days as holiday tournaments tend to be. Every team deals with it and we'll get better as a result."

The game started out promising for Prospect (1-3) as it battled Evanston to an 11-all draw after the first eight minutes of play. The Knights scored the opening hoop of the second period on a Jon Kreidler layup from Ben Miller 57 seconds into the quarter.

Then the Wildkits would go on an 18-0 run over the next 5:50 that left them comfortably ahead 29-13 on sophomore Isaiah Holden's second 3-pointer during the run with 1:13 left until the break. Older brother Jaheim Holden added 6 of his 11 points during the decisive surge in which the 6-foor senior scored on a pair of scoops to the hoop and a layup. Evanston would lead 35-17 at halftime.

Southern Illinois University signee Lance Jones (team-high 13 points) scored the Wildkits' first three baskets of the third quarter that served as the proverbial icing on the cake that left Evanston up 41-17 with 5:41 to play in the third. The Knights would get no closer than 22 points (41-19) on a layup from senior guard Sam Murray (game-high 14 points) half a minute later.

Six-foot-3 sophomore swingman Jaylin Gibson also chipped in 11 points in Evanston's victorious effort which sets the 3-0 Wildkits up for Saturday's 3 p.m. title match against the host school, which went to 3-0 in a 60-43 win over Conant in Friday's opening contest.

"After we went back and forth in the first eight minutes, we dug our feet in and turned it up defensively," Evanston coach Mike Ellis said. "We played a more smart, solid type of game as opposed to playing undisciplined and lazy."

Ellis looks forward to his team's final matchup with St. Viator.

"It'll be a good test for us," Ellis said. "They have two Division-I guards, we have a Division-I guard. They have a 6-8 guy, we have a couple of guys that we feel can match up with him. This is such a great tournament to start the season, where if you don't come prepared to play you end up learning lessons from losses instead of getting wins."

For Prospect, it begins the defense of its MSL titles of a year ago next Friday at home versus Elk Grove.

"I think coming here gives you good experience going forward," Murray said. "When you go up against two Top 10 teams, you can learn a lot from it as we move to conference play."