Two To Tango For Seneca
Evans and Callahan Combine For 52 in Irish Victory
By Bill Lidinsky
When both Seth Evans and Griffan Callahan bring their ‘A’ games to the basketball floor on the same night, it’s mighty hard for any high school varsity hoop team to beat the Seneca Fighting Irish.
Saturday evening on their home court, the two potential Class A All State performers elevated their all around game to impressive levels. But it was on the offensive end of the floor where both shined brightly.
Evans and Callahan combined for 52 total points as Seneca easily dominated non conference foe Chicago Dyett 66-53, thus giving the Irish their 62 nd straight victory. Seneca (17-0, 6-0) now stands six wins shy of tying the IHSA state record of 68 consecutive triumphs.
“We haven’t had them both going strong on the same night like this for several games, so it’s nice to have that happen again,” said Seneca head basketball coach Doug Evans. “Seth started off strong in the first half and then Grif got in on it also in the second half. When they both playing well together our offense looks pretty nice.”
Evans tallied 10 of his game high 29 points in the first quarter as the Irish jumped out early on the Eagles leading 13-8 after one quarter of play. The sophomore point guard nailed two-threes in the first stanza to help get the Seneca ship rolling.
“I was really glad things started well for me early. It really made me confident in what I was doing,” Seth Evans said. “I haven’t been shooting threes well lately and to hit two in the first quarter was big. I know they’d start to come back again. I just had to stay confident in my ability.”
Evans, who was limited to only four points on four free throws in a narrow win against Sandwich on Friday, kept things rolling for the Irish in the second period with nine more tallies to up his total to 19 for the first 16 minutes of play.
Callahan added eight of his own points in the first half as the two combined for 27 of Seneca’s 28 with the Irish in command 28-19 at the intermission.
“We knew Dyett was going to give us a lot of pressure defensively and we knew that if we could handle it with some good passing and shooting we’d be ok,” Callahan said. “Seth did a great job scoring in the first half to really take them out of their game. We were able to steadily pull away in the second half and I was able to get some points myself.”
Callahan tallied 15 of his 23 point total in the final 16 minutes including 12 in the fourth quarter.
Seneca took a 43-30 lead going into the final period and would lead by as many as 20 before Dyett netted the last seven points of the game as the Irish prevailed by 13.
The dynamic duo were stellar on defense as well helping force 20 Eagle turnovers in a game that saw the two Seneca stars raise their game to where many cannot.
“Grif and I have played together since we were little kids,” Seth Evans said. “We just know when either one of us gets hot, feed them the ball. If we’re both hot we know we’ll both take our shots. It works out well for us and it sure did tonight.”
In addition to the 52 by Evans and Callahan, Nick Andreatta and Ben Paulsen chipped in six apiece for the Irish. Jonathan McMullen paced Dyett (8-10) with 17 points including five point field goals.
Seneca will jump back into Interstate Eight Conference play on Tuesday night as they’ll host Herscher in what may be a tough battle between the top two squads in the I-8.
“We know we have a tough game Tuesday night against Herscher. By this time of the season everybody knows each other very well,” Doug Evans said. “We know they’ll be coming here trying to give us a conference loss and break our streak. Certainly it will be a tight game and a tough battle. Hopefully we can continue to play well on Tuesday like we did tonight.”
Seneca Prevails In Defensive War
Irish Streak Still Alive Despite Outstanding Sandwich Effort
By Bill Lidinsky
High flying offensive basketball was at a premium Friday night at Sandwich High School while lock down, stifling defense shined bright in the spotlight.
In what would prove to be one of the toughest tests in their current run of 60 consecutive victories, the Seneca Fighting Irish added number 61 straight to the list outlasting the Sandwich Indians 41-37 in an Interstate Eight Conference defensive slug fest that kept Seneca on their toes to the very end.
Irish sophomore guard Seth Evans knocked down two free throws with 10 seconds to play to give Seneca (16-0, 6-0) the four point victory over Sandwich (11-9, 4-2) who gave the Irish one of their biggest challenges during this 61 game streak.
“Sandwich played great defense on us tonight. They had two or three guys on me everywhere I went,” Seth Evans said. “I missed a free throw late in the game, but I was able to come back and get the two at the end with another chance. They played a very physical defense that really held us up offensively. But we managed to pull it out and get the win.”
Evans, normally a double digit scorer was held to only four points on four free throws by the lock down defensive effort by Indians Gil Buttels and Travis Anderson.
“I was proud of our defense tonight, especially shutting down Evans like we did,” said Sandwich head basketball coach Chris Johnson. “Gil and in particular Travis, played him very tight and we were able to limit his opportunities. But (Griffan) Callahan really killed us especially in the first half.”
Callahan tallied 15 of his game high 17 points in the opening two quarters as Seneca jumped out to a 17-8 lead after one period and led 24-14 with just under five minutes to go in the half.
“I thought we handled their defensive pressure pretty well in the first half and I felt good on the floor early,” Callahan said. “But then I got into foul trouble and I got frustrated. I’ve got to learn to stay out of that.”
Callahan sat the bench with two foul for the majority of the final minutes of the half and Sandwich scored the last six points to close to 24-20 at the intermission.
He picked up his third at 3:51 of the third during a defensive standoff that saw the Irish take a 30-27 advantage into the final eight minutes.
“We were going along well leading by ten in the second period until Griffan got into foul trouble,” said Seneca head basketball coach Doug Evans. “We had the momentum and things were looking good. But we had to sit Griffan and Sandwich was able to rally before halftime. Then he picked up two more and his fourth to start the final period and we were struggling against their defense as a result.”
Sandwich tied the game at 30 after Callahan’s departure on a three ball by Travis Van Pelt at 7:25 in the final stanza.
But the Irish went on a 9-2 run over the next six minutes to take a 39-32 advantage with 1:25 to play.
Matt Kennedy and Ben Paulsen accounted for five and four points respectively during the Seneca rally.
“Matt and Ben really stepped up down the stretch,” Doug Evans said. “Usually it’s Seth, Griffan, or Nick Andreatta, but those two really gave us a lift when we needed it.”
But the Indians would not die and cut the lead to 39-37 with 45 seconds to play on a three ball by Anderson and a deuce by Buttels.
Evans then missed the front end of his one-and-one opportunity with 30 seconds to go and Johnson called a time out for Sandwich.
“We had an opportunity to tie at least or even to get the win,” Johnson said. “But we got a little crossed up and turned the ball over. Evans hit his free throws after a foul and our effort came up short. I’m very proud however of how we played especially on defense against the second ranked team in Class A.”
In addition to Callahan’s 17 points, Andreatta and Kennedy each added eight for Seneca.
Buttels paced Sandwich with eight points also, while Anderson tallied seven in the losing effort that saw eight Indian players score.
But it was defense that ruled the night at Sandwich.
“It was a great defensive game for both teams. Sandwich really shut Seth down tonight and we were fortunate to come away with a win playing great defense as well,” Doug Evans said. “I thought our team showed a lot of character against a very good opponent. We haven’t been in this situation too much over the past couple of years and yet we came away with the victory. We showed a lot of composure tonight.”
Seneca will go for 62 straight wins as they’ll host Chicago Dyett tonight at 7 p.m. Sandwich will next host Wilmington on Tuesday evening.