Rocca Records First Double Double In Wildkit Win

Double doubles are part of the basketball legacy at the Rocca household.

Now Vito Rocca can chime in when the conversation turns to basketball at the family Thanksgiving dinner Thursday.

Rocca’s first career double --- points and rebounds --- helped Evanston score its second straight victory Wednesday at the 37th annual Chuck Mitchell Thanksgiving tournament hosted by Fenton. The Wildkits drilled Montini Catholic 68-33 in pool play behind Timi Ogunsanya’s 20 points, and 15 points and 11 rebounds from Rocca.

A win over Wheaton Warrenville South on Friday would secure a berth in the championship game against the other pool winner, probably Romeoville, on Saturday night.

Rocca, a 6-foot-6 junior, has big shoes to step into in his third varsity season at ETHS. He’s the only returning starter from last year’s Final Four team, and his father Mason is a Hall of Famer who probably owns the school record for most double doubles in his career if those records existed.

Older brother Theo, an All-Stater last year, also grabbed his share of rebounds as Evanston’s go-to scorer during his career.

Getting Vito more involved Wednesday turned out to be a priority for the Wildkits after he netted just six points in a season-opening romp over Rolling Meadows. But the numbers have never really revealed Rocca’s value to Evanston’s program, because he’s a guy who’s happy to do the “dirty work” guarding the opponents’ best big man, rebounding, setting screens and passing to open teammates.

Unselfish as he is, and perfectly willing to let his teammates own the headlines, Rocca admitted that the idea of a double double occupied a corner of his mind as he piled up rebounds in the second half.

“These numbers (15 and 11) are probably chicken feed to my Dad. He had games with 20, 26 rebounds and he was a rebounding machine,” Vito Rocca said. “But it’s nice to get my first one. I started thinking in the second half in a small part of my mind that it might be possible.

“Crashing the boards and working hard is how I try to play every night. I’ve never been a huge offensive guy before this year. But this year I have more responsibility --- I wouldn’t call it pressure --- as the only returning starter, so I have to keep building and growing my game.

“Last night (against Rolling Meadows) I didn’t get too involved but I realized that all our guards were so hot so OK, they’ve got it. We’ve all put in a ton of work (in the preseason) so I’m not surprised at all with the way we’ve showed out.”

Rocca’s stat line featured 7-of-13 shooting from the floor. The Wildkits shot 49 percent from the floor for the game even though they cooled off after splurging for 27 points in the first quarter for the second night in a row.

“Vito’s teammates will find him. And he doesn’t need to demand the ball at any point, because we coaches will demand that he get it,” said Evanston head coach Mike Ellis. “He’s an integral point of our offense. He could have a double double like that every night. We want the ball in his hands quite a bit.

“We talked at halftime about getting Vito more involved, about getting more touches for him in the mid-range. We tried to play through him because when teams like Montini extend their defense out against our 3-point shooters, then the mid-range game is there and Vito can operate there. Let’s just go where the defense isn’t, because Vito is a good decision maker and he’ll find the open man. We needed to get him more touches in the paint.”

Ogunsanya --- whose best three career offensive performances have all come in the Fenton gym --- poured in 16 points in the opening quarter, connecting on six straight shots from the floor including four 3-point baskets.

Evanston led 27-6 after the first quarter, same score as the night before against Rolling Meadows, and stretched the advantage to 45-17 by halftime. Rocca’s eight points in the third quarter led to a 59-31 lead and put the slaughter rule into effect again in the fourth quarter.

Dion Lane Jr. added 13 points and Ben Ojala contributed 7 points and 5 assists for ETHS. Montini’s Rob Sanson netted 20 points on 8-of-20 shooting as the only Bronco to reach double figures.