RallyNorth.net

 Andover junior Nicole Boudreau tied her season high with nine 3-pointers and scored an area season-best 39 points as Andover whipped Cambridge Rindge & Latin 81-67 in the finals on the Spartan Classic. Overall, the Warriors had 15 3-pointers as they wound up the regular season with a 21-1 record.

Ally Fazio scored all 13 of her points in the second quarter as Andover surged past North Andover with a 24-6 frame on its way to a 69-54 victory. Devin Caveney had 16 points for the Warriors (17-1) and Nicole Boudreau had 16 points, 12 rebounds and five blocks. Morgan Lumb had 19 points for North Andover (13-4), which had a 10-game winning streak snapped.

LAWRENCE — It seemed like nothing would change.

Despite having a decided height advantage, Central Catholic couldn’t get consistent production in the paint against unbeaten Andover in its first two battles. The hard defensive work of Jackie Alois and Nicole Boudreau down low prevailed before and threatened to work again through the first half of Round 3 yesterday.

Natalie Gomez-Martinez and Nicole Boudreau each tallied 18 points as Andover rolled over Notre Dame of Tyngsboro 76-44. The Golden Warriors improved to 15-0 for the season.

Ally Fazio scored a career-high 23 points as Andover scored a whopping 43 points in the first period on the way to downing Methuen 88-48. Fazio and Natalie Gomez-Martinez each hit four of the Golden Warriors' 15 3-pointers.

Nicole Boudreau sank a stunning nine 3-pointers en route to 34 points and she added 10 steals in Andover's 86-61 win over Billerica. Natalie Gomez had a double-double with 27 points and 10 assists in the game.

boud - 8 steals - 6 assist.  Gomez 8 asssits 11 steals

ANDOVER — Ms. Clutch Nicole Boudreau stole the basketball from her good friend, Central Catholic guard Gabie Polce, with less than 10 seconds remaining.  Boudreau tossed the ball ahead to Ally Fazio who avoided being fouled. Then, the buzzer sounded and the giant celebration began. Andover had won a nail-biter, 53-52, in front of a packed and boisterous home gymnasium — and everyone on the Andover bench stormed the court and celebrated better than most high school teams celebrate a state championship. The only thing that was lacking was a Gatorade bath for coach Jim Tildsley. That’s how much this rivalry means to these players on both squads. “Our rivalry is a huge,” Boudreau said. “It’s the most fun game to play of the year.” Central Catholic coach Sue Downer added: “I think this was probably one of the more physical, toughest high school girls basketball games in a long time.” There is no doubt about it. These are the two best girls basketball teams in the state — again.  Tildsley certainly gave high praise to Central. He thinks this Central team is even better than it was last year. And, yes, last year’s Central team had Katie Zenevitch, who now is starring at BC. “They are better than they were last year,” Tildsley said. “She (Downer) goes nine deep and they play great defense and their big kids are tough. (Casey) McLaughlin is a heck of a player. She’s a real, real player and (Melissa) Miller played well and (Gabie) Polce — they all played well.” Central is Andover’s biggest, toughest obstacle on its way to another state title. The Raiders have the talent, size and ability to exploit Andover’s lack of height inside with two tall stars in Miller, a 6-footer, and McLaughlin, a 5-11 sophomore. Miller (18 points, 16 rebounds) and McLaughlin (13 points, nine rebounds), at times yesterday, were able to score at will inside and out-rebound Andover at will. Boudreau was guarding Miller who scored eight points in the first quarter alone. “She killed me,” Boudreau said about Miller. “Let’s not say it lightly. She killed me. We definitely need to work on stopping them somehow. (McLaughlin and Miller), they work together really well ... and play well together. So they’re definitely hard to stop. But I definitely don’t think it’s (impossible) to stop them.  But they just killed us today.” Andover does have a lack of size. Its tallest player is 5-9 Mollie Maturah, a bench player. And Andover has had some trouble stopping tall center/forwards, including Lowell star Tess Cigliano who scored 23 against the Golden Warriors in the Greater Lawrence Girls Christmas Tourney. Tildsley’s team must compensate for its lack of height with its strong, full-court pressure defense. But will that be enough to stop Central come playoff time? We will have to wait to see. For now, I think we’re all looking forward to the next game between these two squads, which will be Feb. 7 at Central Catholic. “I don’t know if we feel so good tonight but I think in time we will when we digest how well we did do,” Downer said. “I said to them, ‘Ladies, we just played one of the best teams in the state and we are right there.’ And so we will build on that. We’ll build on all the positives that happened because there were certainly lots of them tonight.”

Nicole Boudreau scored a team high 24 points with four 3-pointers to propell Andover to a 72-51 win over Mt. Wachusett. Boudreau also had 10 rebounds and seven assists and Natalie Gomez-Martinez had nine points with eight rebounds, six assists, and seven steals.

METHUEN — Nicole Boudreau has been stepping up huge in big games her whole entire life. Her twin sister Danielle Boudreau, who was born 9 minutes before Nicole, still clearly remembers the time when Nicole was 12 years old and poured in two 3-pointers with time running out to lead their church league team to a one-point victory. “She thrives off the crowd,” Danielle said. “The bigger (the game) the better. She just works off the energy and she’s an amazing player. But when she’s put under pressure, she really knows how to step up.” Boudreau played in another big game yesterday and put on another big performance. The 2010 Eagle-Tribune Player of the Year and the Boston College bound Boudreau led Andover to a 66-41 victory in the championship game of the Greater Lawrence Christmas Tourney here at Methuen High School yesterday. She was named the tournament MVP for the second straight year. Her statistics likely would have been better yesterday but she played just 26 minutes and sat out most of the fourth quarter because her team was ahead by so many points. She finished with a game-high 25 points to go along with six rebounds, three assists, four steals and one blocked shot. She was 5 of 10 from the 3-point line and 2 for 2 from the foul line. Boudreau was awesome. She always has been awesome, Danielle said. “In Hooptown, which was a camp that we did when we started (basketball), I remember she was about 8 years old and we knew right away that she had the talent,” Danielle said. “They played her right away against a great high school boy, (Andover’s) Tommy McLaughlin. He was probably a 6-4 great player. She played him one-on-one in front of the entire camp. She went under his legs and scored against him.” Yesterday, Pinkerton’s Michelle Reid had the difficult task of guarding Boudreau. “She’s a challenge,” Reid said. “But it’s always nice to be able to come up to that challenge and try to do your best.” Boudreau has been mentioned so many times in The Eagle-Tribune since she was a young player, but Danielle said her sister never gets a big head. “Every morning my dad sets out the newspaper so when we wake up it’s right there,” Danielle said. “He wakes up at like 6 in the morning so it’s always ready. She doesn’t get cocky at all. She just loves reading them. My mom keeps a scrapbook of every single article that’s ever in the paper. She has like four books now.” Nicole not only thrives in big games but seems to love playing at Methuen High, where in the Christmas tourney title game last year she had an immense performance, scoring 39 points on 9-of-12 shooting from 3-point range. “We always say this is our second home because we’ve played here so many times in the past couple of years,” Nicole said. “It’s a great shooting gym. We’ve got a little bit of background and we’re just comfortable here.”