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Boudreau delivers Andover into finals

Tuesday, December, 28 By Christopher Smith
Staff writer

METHUEN — We all know Andover junior Nicole Boudreau is a great basketball player. She was The Eagle-Tribune Player of the Year last year as a sophomore and has already committed to play at Boston College.

But what makes her great is not just pure talent. It also is her terrific hustle and ability to step up and play well when her team needs her the most.

Boudreau did just that again yesterday by scoring 27 points (or 53 percent of Andover’s points), grabbing six rebounds, making four steals, blocking two shots and converting 13 of 14 free throws in a 53-47 victory over Lowell in the semifinals of the Greater Lawrence Christmas Tourney.

“Without her (Boudreau), we wouldn’t have been in this game,” Andover’s Devon Caveney said. “She brought us back with her foul shots and by taking it to the basket. As a team we played awful, but she’s always there to fall back on.”

Andover will play Pinkerton in the tourney championship game today at 7:30 p.m.

Boudreau certainly does step up huge on the big stage. She showed that last year during the Greater Lawrence Christmas tourney championship game against rival Central when she scored 39 points on 9-of-12 shooting from 3-point range, was 6 of 6 from the free throw line, grabbed seven rebounds, recorded four assists, made four steals and had three monster blocks.

Maybe yesterday’s performance was not as memorable, pretty or flashy as what she did last year. But she again got the job done when her team needed her the most and earned Andover the victory.

Andover didn’t play well at all, turning the ball over 19 times, and shooting just 30.6 percent from the floor and only 10.5 percent from 3-point range.

“We just had nothing really going for us,” Boudreau said. “We just couldn’t make shots. So we couldn’t really set up any of our defenses. We just had to grind it out.”

The best example of Boudreau’s hustle came during the final 1:05 of the first half over which time she had three steals. The three steals led to a combined six points and helped the Golden Warriors turn a 19-14 deficit into a 20-19 halftime lead.

“Luckily, I got a couple of steals that we got some point off of,” Boudreau said. “It wasn’t the greatest game at all.”

Boudreau also made a real nice defensive play to prevent Lowell from getting a final shot off in the first half after Lowell in-bounded the ball with 3 seconds remaining before the break.

Does Boudreau feel like the leader of her team when Andover is struggling?

“We have three captains so we have three leaders,” said Boudreau, one of the tri-captains. “But if we get into crunch time and we can’t make some baskets, then yeah, I definitely want to try to get some baskets for us.”

Boudreau scored 11 of her 27 points in the third quarter to help Andover outscore Lowell 21-10 during that period. The Golden Warriors then held on in the fourth quarter to win by six points despite being outscored in the final period 18-12.

Maybe one reason Boudreau is such a hustler and such a big-game player is because her coach expects so much out of her.

“Again she had big steals on defense, which is huge and she did take it to the hoop which is good,” Andover coach Jim Tildsley said. “She had 27 but I think she can play much better. She played well but she can play better. And I think she knows that, too.”