Voting for the boys all-conference basketball team in the Central Suburban League South division will take place Monday, and when it comes to choosing a Player of the Year, odds are the votes will be divided between Jake Fiegen of New Trier and Josh Fridman of Glenbrook North.
Fiegen blossomed from just a 3-point threat as a junior to a better all-around player as a senior, while leading the Trevians to the division championship. And Fridman, a junior point guard, was the engine that drove GBN all year, then saw his season end with a knee injury in last week’s win over state-ranked Rolling Meadows.
But they’re not the only ones who made a big impression on the league this year. In his final conference game of the season Thursday night at Beardsley Gymnasium, Evanston’s Prince Adams turned in a jaw-dropping performance of his own.
Adams filled the stat sheet again for the Wildkits in a 61-56 trimming of Niles West, pouring in a career-high 30 points to go with 13 rebounds and 5 blocked shots. He helped Evanston overcome a dismal 0-for-15 shooting performance from 3-point range – when was the last time the Wildkits didn’t register at least one 3-pointer in a game? – while Niles West tossed in 10 baskets from beyond the arc.
The 6-foot-5 senior forward has doubled his scoring average from a year ago, from 7 points per game to a current 14, and none of Evanston’s CSL South foes can deny the impact he’s made at both ends of the floor this year.
Adams might have expected to enjoy the rest of the night off after the Kits built a 45-29 lead after three quarters, on their way to their 22nd victory of the 2022-23 campaign. But he had to return to the floor with 5 minutes left, along with the rest of the starters, after the ETHS bench couldn’t accomplish much and Niles West cut the deficit to 47-38.
Niles West didn’t miss much after that, either. But Adams stashed in 10 points in the last five minutes, blocked a pair of shots and West only got as close as the final margin because Joey Pantazis (20 points) threw in a 3-point shot at the buzzer.
Adams connected on 12-of-17 field goal attempts, all of them in the paint. He didn’t attempt any 3-point shots while 8 of his teammates shared the oh-fer.
That earned them a 6 a.m. practice Friday morning, but head coach Mike Ellis didn’t really have anything to complain about except for all of those 3-point misses. The Wildkits played solid defense again, only turned the ball over 13 times, and shot 46% from the field overall.
“We’ll be shooting at 6 o’clock tomorrow,” Ellis promised. “I’m hoping this was just a bad night. We really wanted to force the ball inside tonight and our guys really followed the game plan. I’d rather have that 0-for-15 when we still get that many touches in the paint. We were really intent on attacking the paint, and the way we got the ball inside was the difference tonight.
“That was definitely one of Prince’s best games. And I feel a lot better now about our guard play [heading into the postseason playoffs] because our decision-making is good, and we’re not turning the ball over as much. Everyone pitched in tonight for our common goal: winning.”
Evanston (22-7 overall, 6-4 CSL South) also counted 10 points from its other inside threat, Josh Thomas, and point guard Hunter Duncan was credited with 6 assists and also tallied 8 points. Pantazis, Davee Flowers (15 points) and Timothy Mathew (11) all reached double figures for West.
The Wildkits will host Vernon Hills next Tuesday in a CSL crossover game.