Portage senior O’Mari Evans figured he didn’t have any other options.
If he wanted to stay on the court, he had to shoot.
“I feel like I’ve always been good at shooting three because I didn’t have a choice,” Evans said. “I’ve always been the smallest person on the court, so I have to use that to be able to stay in the game.”
Evans always wanted to be in the game, a desire fueled by his rivalry with a family member while he was growing up, but the 6-foot guard has found other ways to do that.
Evans, who was second on the team with 11.8 points per game last season, is averaging just 6.7 points along with 3.0 rebounds and 2.3 assists for the Indians (2-1) through three games. Defense, not 3-point shooting, is top of mind.
“I’ve been trying to get a lot better on defense,” Evans said. “The scoring will happen, but my focus has just been on defense.”
That focus was encouraged by Portage coach Bryon Clouse.
“With his athletic ability and quickness, we’ve got to make sure that he’s guarding the other team’s quick, athletic guy,” Clouse said.
But when the scoring happens for Evans, the points will likely come from behind the arc, where he led Portage with 42 3-pointers last season after making just 23 as a sophomore.
“My form was not consistent,” he said. “I tried working on it all summer, and it was tough. I felt like I couldn’t hit a shot during the first few games at the beginning of my junior year. But my teammates gave me the confidence to keep shooting, and it eventually worked out.”
Indeed, Evans caught fire later in his junior season, hitting five 3-pointers twice during a stretch of 12 games in which he made 41.3% (31 for 75). Clouse said the key was changing the trajectory of the ball out of Evans’ hands.
“He had more of a flat, line-drive shot,” Clouse said. “If you get a perfect arc, it has a better chance of going in. If you’re shooting a line drive, you have to hit the perfect spot every time, which is very hard for professionals, let alone 15-year-old kids.”
Evans grew up playing basketball against his uncle Albert, a 2008 Portage graduate who played football at Purdue and later signed with the Miami Dolphins as an undrafted free agent. Despite their age difference, Evans said his uncle never took it easy on him.
“We played every day in the summer in my grandma’s backyard, and I never, ever won,” he said. “When I was a kid, he destroyed me. He always told me that I’d never be able to beat him, and that gave me the edge to practice and to get better — and eventually I was able to beat him.”
Evans’ win came when he was 15.
“I talked a lot of trash for a long time,” he said. “I haven’t lost to him since.”
Evans hopes to use his voice in a different manner for the rest of this season and provide a spark for a team that hasn’t won a sectional title since 2001.
“I want to be more vocal and to be as good of a leader as I can for our team,” he said. “I’m proud of how we’ve been playing because it’s better than we have the last few years. I just want to be more unselfish, get more people involved and, most importantly, play better defense.”
Dave Melton is a freelance reporter.
