Tired Kits Falter In Second Half

Tied with perennial girls basketball power Bolingbrook at halftime Saturday, Evanston threw the inbound pass away to start the second half and the Raiders responded with a layup.

Things didn’t get better for the Wildkits after that.

Bolingbrook amped up its defense and wore down the visitors on the way to a 51-40 non-conference victory.

The Raiders held Evanston to just 6-of-28 shooting from the field in the second half and ETHS fell to 0-2 on the season.

One consolation for ETHS head coach Brittanny Johnson was that her squad has already likely faced the two most physical teams on the schedule --- Trinity and Bolingbrook --- and matched those two squads for at least a half in each game.

“Today was a tale of two halves,” Johnson said. “We had three possessions there at the end of the first half where we needed to lock in and not let them extend the run they were on, but we didn’t. I thought we handled their toughness well in the first half. Usually when we play them, they out-tough us. But we got tired in the second half and couldn’t play through the fatigue.

“It was a pretty physical game and that’s more to their advantage. The positive (takeaway) for me is that for six minutes today we played more like our (best) selves and we had zero minutes like that against Trinity. We played great defense for that one stretch in the second quarter, and then those possessions leading into halftime cost us the lead.”

Johnson substituted at almost every dead ball, still searching for the best rotation of players this early in the 2025-26 campaign. But besides Charity Bryant’s team-high 17 points (and 7 rebounds), and 12 points from Havana Van Wyk, the rest of the Wildkit lineup only contributed a total of 11 points among seven different players.

Bolingbrook, which was playing its season opener, was paced by Kennedy Williams (15 points), Skylar Wakefield (13) and Natalie Frempong (11). Williams netted 13 of her points in the second half.

Johnson’s switch to a 1-3-1 zone once the Kits took the lead in the second period, with 6-foot-1 freshman Simone Hewitt harassing Bolingbrook’s guards up top, came as Evanston reeled off 10 unanswered points. Bryant converted a pass from Payton King for a lay-up and a 23-15 advantage with 2 minutes, 25 seconds left in the half as the Raider home crowd grew restless.

The hosts, however, responded with a 10-2 run and it took a successful shot in the lane by Bryant with five seconds left on the clock to help ETHS get even at 25-25.

Bolingbrook pulled away to a 38-30 edge after three quarters. Closest the Wildkits could get in the final period was with just under a minute to play when Van Wyk fired in a 3-point basket, her fourth of the game, to cut the deficit to 45-40.

The winners nailed down the victory by sinking 6-of-7 free throw attempts after that.

“If we want to turn the corner this year, we have to take advantage of every single possession. I hope that’s what they take away from this game,” Johnson said. “We want to compete in every game we play, and for the majority of the game we did that. We just got tired and made mistakes in the second half, and we need to figure out our rotation so we can keep people fresh.”

Evanston will be on the road again next Saturday at the Whitney Young Thanksgiving Shootout, where they’re matched against Hillcrest at noon.