Northwestern University will host a high school basketball tripleheader— called the E-Town Showdown — featuring Evanston’s boys and girls state-ranked teams on Saturday, Feb. 8.
NU and ETHS reached an agreement this week to host the shootout event and tickets are available online at www.tinyurl.com/etownshowdown at a cost of $8 per general admission ticket. Tickets will cost $10 after Jan. 1 and $12 on the day of the event at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
Two boys games and one girls contest are part of the schedule. The 5 p.m. game will match Loyola Academy against Stevenson, with a matchup between Evanston’s boys and Sussex Hamilton of Wisconsin set for 6:30 p.m.
A girls game between the two teams currently ranked 1-2 in the state of Illinois, Benet Academy of Lisle and Evanston, will climax the event at 8 p.m.
Evanston’s boys will take on a Hamilton team that features one of the top players in the Class of 2021 in the entire country, Patrick Baldwin Jr. The son of former Northwestern assistant coach Pat Baldwin Sr. — now the head coach at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee —is considered one of the top 3 collegiate prospects in the nation in his recruiting class.
Evanston has participated in numerous shootouts since Mike Ellis took over as head coach and the Wildkit boss continues to seek out the best competition available to his squad.
“Those are 3 really good games we have scheduled,” Ellis said. “We really wanted to get back to playing at Welsh-Ryan Arena again and put the local high school team on the floor at our local university. And that’s as good a shootout schedule as you’ll see anywhere in the state.”
Tickets are only available online.