ETHS Boys Basketball Drops Season Opener

Submitted by ETHS Sports Information.

A 3-point basket by freshman Nojel Eastern on Evanston’s first possession of the fourth quarter pulled the Wildkits to within four points of Mount Carmel.

After that, it was all downhill for the Wildkits in their season cage debut at the Lane Tech Thanksgiving Tournament.

The Caravan responded with a 13-0 run and pulled away for a 57-39 victory against a cold-shooting Evanston team Monday night.

ETHS converted only  24 percent (12-of-52) of its field goal attempts and was just 5-of-26 from 3-point range in the season-opening defeat. The Wildkits, who face Notre Dame at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday in the second round of the round-robin tournament, did get 16 points from Eastern in his high school debut. Elijah Henry scored 8 points and added 7 rebounds, guard Nibra White netted 7 points, and Jackson Mihevc grabbed a career-high 10 rebounds for ETHS.

Mount Carmel was paced by David Nichols with 29 points.

“Our best three players in practice have been Nibra White, Will Jones and Dante Henley, and they had one kid who outscored all three of them 29-7,” said Evanston coach Mike Ellis. “That says a lot right there. That’s tough to overcome.

“We shot poorly, and a lot of that was just rushed offense. We did a poor job of moving the basketball and sharing the basketball tonight. We were all perimeter oriented. We definitely have to get (post player) Elijah Henry some more looks.”

Eastern, a smooth-shooting southpaw, settled in after a slow start. He sank 6-of-13 field goal attempts, including three 3-point buckets, and also contributed 3 rebounds. Eastern, who came off the bench in the first half, started the second half and tossed in 8 points in the third quarter as the Wildkits outscored the Caravan 13-5.

Mount Carmel opened up a 30-15 halftime advantage as Evanston only sank four field goals in the first two periods, so Ellis definitely appreciated the boost that Eastern provided on offense.

“It was his first game, but Nojel has enough basketball savvy in him that I don’t see any setting where he won’t play well,” said the ETHS coach. “He really turned it on when we needed it. He was a big part of that third quarter for us.

“I also thought Jackson Mihevc did a great job of keeping us in the game with his interior play. He’s always been more of a perimeter player, but he’s our second biggest guy (at 6 feet, 4 inches) and he has to do things he hasn’t been asked to do in the past, like rebound and defend inside. We need him to crash the boards, and he handled his responsibilities on the interior very well tonight.”