Evanston Plays the Grinch to Naperville Central

Like a lot of people, girls basketball coach Andy Nussbaum opened his Christmas presents on Sunday.

On Monday his team gave him the proverbial lump of coal.

The Redhawks struggled offensively as never before, scoring only 10 points through three quarters and losing 41-20 to Evanston in the opening round of the 29th annual Dundee-Crown Charger Classic in Carpentersville.

While beating Evanston (8-6) was not a given, Nussbaum expected a much better effort from the Redhawks (6-6), who mustered only three baskets in the first half and seven for the game.

“We missed a lot of shots we normally make, but we’re not going to make excuses,” said Nussbaum, who won his 500th career game on Nov. 18. “A team of our caliber, our program, we should be better than that. I’m not even talking about winning. I’m just talking about competing.”

Naperville Central historically has done well at this tournament, winning it in 2002 and 2003 during Candace Parker’s career and often advancing in the winner’s bracket. But it soon became apparent that the Redhawks were off their game.

After Victoria Trowbridge scored the first basket for the Redhawks to cut Evanston’s lead to 4-2, the Wildkits held Central scoreless for the next 9 minutes 41 seconds before Trowbridge scored at the 4:39 mark of the second quarter.

By that time, Evanston was up by nine points and eventually stretched the lead to 20-7 at halftime and 32-10 after the third quarter.

Central’s struggles were due mainly to poor shooting. The Redhawks were only 7 of 36 from the floor (19 percent) and a woeful 4 of 12 from the free-throw line. But the Wildkits, who only shot 18 for 60 (30 percent) themselves, played tough defense, particularly in the post, where 6-1 Sinclair Cunningham and 6-2 Alecia Cooley dominated.

Cunningham, who had a game-high 15 rebounds, and Cooley both scored eight points but it was their defense on the Redhawks’ star center Emma Donahue that was most impressive. Donahue, a 6-3 senior, was held to just five points as she got off only seven shots. She made two of them, one a three-pointer in the third quarter after the game was out of reach.

“That’s the story of our lives,” Evanston coach Elliot Whitefield said. “Offensively we don’t get much in transition or off turnovers. We struggle to score at times but we’ve gotten better.

“Defensively, today especially, the kids played great team defense. Help-side was outstanding, the pressure was great. I knew if [the Redhawks] were able to get the ball inside, it would be trouble, but the pressure we were able to put on them at the perimeter sort of took away their post game.”

Reserve Laura Dierking led Central with eight points and seven rebounds, all of them in the second half. Trowbridge added four points and eight rebounds and Morgan Andreoni had three points.

While Nussbaum was impressed with the play of the Wildkits and said he wouldn’t be surprised if they upset New Trier in Tuesday’s quarterfinals, he stressed the Redhawks, who face Regina at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday in a consolation quarterfinal, must play better.

“I don’t care if we’re playing on July the 4th, we’ve got to be able to put more than 20 points on the board,” Nussbaum said. “We played poorly and we’re going to try and fix the problem.”