On Nov. 29, NT boys basketball wrapped up their annual 4-game Thanksgiving tournament with a 30-point bounce-back win against Mount Carmel High School. This came three days after the Loyola Academy Ramblers walked on to the Trevs home court and dominated, winning 51-43. For the other two games, the Trevs beat out Noble Street College Prep and Lake Forest High School 67-29 and 61-46, respectively.

New Trier and Loyola hosted their annual Thanksgiving boys basketball tournament from Nov. 23 to Nov. 29, where the participating teams play three round-robin games, and then the top four teams play for either first and second place in one game or third and fourth place in another game the Saturday after turkey day.

Coming into the holiday week ranked No. 10 in the state, the Trevs showed they have a lot of growing to do, especially in the first half. 

The team came out slow against both Lake Forest and Loyola, and the second halves of both games told completely different stories than the first. 

After the first 16 minutes of the Lake Forest matchup, the Trevs were down 25-23, with the Scouts in control of the game. Yet the Trevians came out of the locker room firing, outscoring the Scouts 25-7 in the third quarter. 

After the Lake Forest win, head coach Scott Fricke said a change in tenacity was what led to their comeback.

“We couldn’t guard anybody,” Fricke said. “They were getting whatever they wanted, and we didn’t come out with the energy and enthusiasm we needed. Halfway through the second quarter, we looked up at the scoreboard and said, if we don’t turn this around, this is gonna be ugly…Then [in the third quarter] it was our tempo. We instilled our will on them.”

Captain Christopher Kirkpatrick reiterated a similar sentiment.

“We knew that we were playing down to our competition, and we were talking about it at halftime,” Kirkpatrick said. “We were really not playing how we wanted to play, and we needed to pick it up.”

Coming into their next game against the Loyola Ramblers, Fricke wanted to focus on the Trevs’ defense. 

“We have got to become a better defensive team,” Fricke said. “We’re spending a lot of time on it in practice, and other things are kind of being affected because we’re spending so much time on defense. But we’re not going to do what we want to do unless we become a better defensive team.”

Yet, in their loss to the Ramblers, defense wasn’t the Trevs’ main issue. In the first half, they were held to just five points. 

But, coming into the second half, NT changed their game plan to use full-court press and quick double-teams, which disrupted Loyola’s offensive flow. With this new game plan, the Trevs controlled the second half tempo and shortened the Ramblers’ lead down to single digits, but couldn’t finish the comeback in the end.

On top of their second-half performance against the Ramblers, the Trevs’ blowout win against preseason No. 11 Mount Carmel shows the potential of this year’s team. 

According to Fricke, the team will need to develop their pregame preparations in order to reach this potential. 

“We need more focus going into the game,” Fricke said. “It’s a new team and a new year, so this was really our first game where we had a scouting report and a walkthrough, and I think it slowed some kids down. I think maybe we gave them more information than what they needed, but they have to get used to processing information about a team.”

The pieces are in place for NT boys basketball to make a state run, but consistency will be the key.

“If we do all the right things and work on our teamwork, we’re gonna be a really good team this year,” forward Matthew Logue said.