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Evanston quickly finds the range

Practices have been especially fun for the Evanston boys basketball team lately.

Even coming off of three straight losses.

The Wildkits, who lost their last three games of the regular season after winning 13 straight and earning consideration as one of the top teams in the Chicago area, did lots and lots of shooting and their practices this week … and who doesn't like to shoot?

"It was simple, during those three losses, we just weren't making shots," Evanston senior forward Dylan Mulvihill said. "We were shooting record-low percentages from 3. We were missing 20 3s in each of those games.

"It wasn't us. We're a team that can usually shoot well. It was a reality check for us that we needed to get back into the gym and get some extra shots up. We needed to put more work in and we did. I think we worked it out."

Evanston got its shooting mojo back in a 56-29 win in Class 4A regional semifinal action on Tuesday at Warren. The top-seeded Wildkits hit seven 3-pointers.

"We needed this game to build some confidence back," said Mulvihill, who scored a team-high 13 points for Evanston, which rested its starters for most of the fourth quarter.

Evanston, which improves to 22-5 and will face the winner of Wednesday's semifinal between Libertyville and Niles North, was up 13-4 at the end of the first quarter and 29-13 at halftime.

"We shot over 50 percent on offense and I thought a lot of those were the result of good spacing, good passing, looking for each other," said Evanston coach Mike Ellis, whose team lost to Maine South, Simeon and Deerfield to end the regular season. "It was a solid effort.

"(Over the three losses), we had some guys who might have tried to do too much individually. We're definitely in a position to learn from those mistakes. I've got to give credit to our guys for understanding the difference between what it takes to win. They focused and locked in back at practice these last three or four days."

Evanston got scoring from a total of 10 players while locking down on defense against Glenbrook South. The Titans had 1 field goal in the first quarter.

"(Evanston) shot pretty well. If they had any room, they were getting good looks and knocking them down," said Glenbrook South coach Ben Widner, whose team closes out the season with a 12-16 record. "The key was the way they defended in the first half. They defended so well. We didn't get anything going to the basket. We got no rhythm on the offensive side.

"They are tough and I think this was their fresh start, like 'OK, forget the end of the season. This is what we're here for.'"

Glenbrook South got a team-high 11 points from junior guard Matt Giannakopoulos.

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