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#44 Travis Clark- Picture by Ray Whitehouse

“Don’t call it a comeback.” Down 22-9 early in the second quarter against #8 Oak Park-River Forest, coach Bobby Locke may have been the only person in the packed gym that believed Evanston had a shot at coming out with a win. Despite the early deficit, the 9^th ranked Wildkits managed to battle back and go on a 33-4 run ahead of ultimately coming out victorious over Oak Park and the #1 ranked senior in the state, 6-3 guard Iman Shumpert.

            “We were just flat in the beginning of the game,” said Locke, “we were getting all the shots we wanted by we couldn’t hit any of them,” he continued. “When I was calling timeouts in the beginning of the game I didn’t even break out the clipboard because they were executing just fine. All I told them was ‘you have to hit your shots!’”

            They did start hitting their shots, and the Wildkits seemed to be clicking on all cylinders led by the stellar play of their senior guards, Stephen Rudnicki and Zach Morton. “Zach and Steve didn’t quit, and that’s a big reason why we were able to come back,” said Locke. “I told those two that they are the best backcourt in the state, and tonight they came out and played like it.”

            Despite having a rocky start, Rudnicki finished the game with 17 points and 6 assists. Morton added 15 points, 7 assists, 4 rebounds and 2 steals. Morton is committed to play baseball for Northwestern next season, while Rudnicki is looking to play basketball at a number of high level division three schools including Augustana and the University of Chicago.

            “I always have confidence in my shot,” stated Rudnicki. “Once that first shot went in, the weight was lifted off my shoulders and I kept on shooting.”

            “We definitely got our name out there,” added Morton. “We wanted to work with each other, and we did. All the hard work we’ve put in since last season paid off, because we really won as a team.”

            Perhaps Evanston’s top player throughout the tournament was 6-4 senior power forward Travis Clark. Clark has quietly been putting in great work for Evanston in the post, and he is quite possibly the secret ingredient to their success. Clark compiled 18 points in the game on 8 of 9 shooting, to go along with 12 rebounds, 2 blocks, and zero turnovers.

            “I feel like I did good, but as a team we did better,” said the modest big man. “We were hungry for this win, and I’m real proud of my team for getting it.” When asked how he felt about his personal performance in the tournament, Clark bluntly stated: “Personally, it is all about the team.”

            For most of three quarters, the Wildkits offense was very impressive. However they were even more impressive on the other side of the ball, as their 3-2 defense held Shumpert, a Georgia Tech commit, to just 2 first half points, and held Eastern Michigan commit Danny Barnes to just 11 points in the game. Shumpert scored some late buckets to finish with 18 points.

“I actually stumbled across the 3-2 defense over the summer,” said Locke. “It’s working well: not a lot of people can go around us.”

“My teammates did really good running the top of that 3-2 zone,” added Clark, “they were stopping 3’s all night,” he continued. “Last year in this tournament (Daniel) Barnes killed us with the three. We knew we had to stop him tonight and we did.”