It has been two years filled with sadness off the court for Bloom’s Evonna Blades.
The senior guard had to deal with the deaths of her father, Jimmy, and her grandmother, Clara. Basketball has been a big boost in allowing her to grieve while getting her mind off things.
“Instead of feeling those emotions, I was able to get away from that,” Blades said. “When they were alive, they helped me grow and they helped make me happier.”
The 5-foot-7 Blades continued to work out those emotions on the court Thursday night.
She scored 10 points and added four rebounds to spark the host Blazing Trojans to a 42-40 win over Lincoln-Way East in the Class 4A Bloom Regional championship game in Chicago Heights.
Jenesis Moore came through with 16 points, five rebounds and two steals for third-seeded Bloom (25-2). while Kamryn Turner added nine points and five rebounds.
It was Bloom’s first regional title since 2014-15 and it helped erase the feelings from last season, when the Blazing Trojans were stunned in the regional semifinals by Andrew.
“Man, we were all so down after the Andrew game,” Blades said, “But that fueled ourselves for this game that we would do everything right and not have the same thing happen as last year.”
Sixth-seeded Lincoln-Way East (19-13) had other ideas, however. The Griffins whittled an 11-point deficit early in the third quarter down to one with 2:29 left in the game.
But Blades hit a free throw and Turner added two more to give Bloom a 42-38 lead. A basket by Kennedy Johnson with one second left didn’t come in enough time for Griffins to pull it out.
Kaitlyn Dykstra and Maddie Kelly each scored nine points for Lincoln-Way East, while Emerson Nilsson added eight.
Blades, meanwhile, feels good about how far Bloom has come in one season. The four-year varsity player, three-year starter and team captain also believed her dad was watching over her.
“I feel like my father was here because he would be here every single game,” she said, “I definitely feel like he was here with me (Thursday).”
Bloom coach Sherman White admires the way Blades has handled things on and off the court during tough times.
“She’s had some challenges and suffered some tough losses personally,” White said of Blades. “But she is the kind of young lady who was raised right and gets through them.”
In the process, Blades helped the Blazing Trojans advance to face second-seeded Marist (25-8) at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the semifinals of the Mother McAuley Sectional.
Although Homewood-Flossmoor transfer Moore wasn’t with the Blazing Trojans last season, she felt their pain losing to Andrew.
“I was at the game as a spectator,” she said. “I saw how sad they were. I knew this was a big game and I had my shot.”
At the same time, Blades is now receiving some college interest. White confirmed that he’s confident she will play at the next level.
“She will do whatever is needed to win a particular game,” White said of Blades. “If you ask her to guard the other team’s best offensive player, she will do that.
“If we need her to score, she will do that. Whatever we need her to do, she will go out there and do exactly that. She’s what the old school would call a ‘stat stuffer’ who will do it all for you.”
For example, all four of Blades’ rebounds came in the last three minutes of the game.
She also did well in crunch time, although the Blazing Trojans haven’t experienced much of that lately. After beating Sandburg 67-59 on Jan. 10, they defeated their next nine opponents by an average of 41 points.
“It was really intense and there was a lot of pressure going on,” Blades said of Thursday night’s regional final. “But we ended up coming through.”
Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
