Evanston’s tremendous success the last few seasons has come without a big man. The Wildkits generally played a starting lineup with no player taller than 6-1.
That’s over. Evanston has added two talented bigs this season and they made a major impact in a 68-54 win against Glenbrook South on Saturday in Glenview.
Ola Ajiboye, a 6-7 senior that transferred from Von Steuben, had six blocks and six rebounds. Prince Adams, a 6-5 sophomore, added five rebounds and two blocks off the bench.
“Defense is what I do best,” Ajiboye said. “I like to do the dirty work and use my length. Blocks are my specialty.”
The winner of the CSL South receives an invite to the season-ending Chipotle Classic eight-team tournament. Evanston (9-1, 5-1) and Glenbrook South (11-1, 4-1) are the two best teams in the league. They played their season series this weekend. The Titans won in Evanston on Friday night, so the teams split.
“After the loss [Friday night] we watched film, got to bed early and then came here and did what we wanted to do,” Wildkits senior Blake Peters said.
Peters led Evanston with 28 points, 10 rebounds and four steals. Rashawn Bost added 13 points and Isaiah Holden scored nine.
“Our guys were disappointed in their performance last night and they showed up today ready to play and made all the right plays,” Evanston coach Mike Ellis said. “That’s as close to [a solid] 32 minutes as we’ve played this season against a good team. Our decision making was better.”
Evanston led 34-21 at halftime and by 20 after three quarters.
“When you have a quick turnaround it’s really hard to get the kids to understand all the things that we need to do better,” Glenbrook South coach Phil Ralston said. “And give them credit, they came out and shot the ball well and we relaxed too much on defense.”
Junior Nick Martinelli led the Titans with 31 points and 11 rebounds. Martinelli was good as a sophomore, but he’s quickly matured into one of the area’s best and most consistent players.
“We knew he was going to be good but maybe not this good this soon,” Ralston said. “But Nick and Cooper [Noard] and some of the other kids on the team invested a lot of their own personal time into really working on their craft. We had honest conversations at the end of last season and the kids responded. That’s part of the reason we’ve had such a good season.”
