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Boys Basketball: Lake Forest’s Evan Boudreaux is a difference-maker vs Libertyville
Libertyville High School varsity basketball player, Jack Deichl (22), guards Lake Forest player, Evan Boudreaux (12), during a game at Libertyville High School, on Tuesday, January 17, 2012. | Ruthie Hauge ~ Sun-Times Media
Updated: January 17, 2012 9:39PM
Lake Forest’s squad is filled with veterans who have plenty of varsity experience.
But Tuesday night, it was a freshman who keyed the Scouts to an impressive 61-45 victory over host Libertyville in a North Suburban Conference Lake Division game.
Evan Boudreaux, who quarterbacked Lake Forest’s freshman football team in the fall and surfaced late in the season on the varsity squad as punter due to an injury, literally and figuratively was the big man on Libertyville’s campus on Tuesday.
The 6-7 center poured in 17 points and even hit a three-pointer and grabbed 11 rebounds.
One of Lake Forest’s veterans is senior guard Thomas Durrett, who scored 15 of his game-high 22 points after intermission. He was 7 of 10 from the foul line down the stretch as Libertyville fouled in a futile attempt at a comeback.
John Hayes, another senior, added a dozen points for Lake Forest (9-7 overall, 3-3 in the division), which is 6-2 after an early-season struggle.
“It was a little nerve-wracking at the end there, but our freshman got really tough on the boards and had a couple of huge rebounds for us,” said Lake Forest coach Phil LaScala.
Lake Forest led 46-28 after three quarters, but committed six turnovers early in the fourth quarter to led the Wildcats back into the game at 50-43 and 52-45, before the Scouts finished the game by hitting 9 of 10 free throws.
“Evan played football, so he didn’t play basketball most of the fall,” said LaScala, “but you can tell he’s starting to feel comfortable out there and the kids are getting comfortable with him too.”
The coach added that a meeting of the minds after a bad loss to Highland Park in a Christmas tournament turned the season around.
“We were playing at 8:30 in the morning at Hinsdale South against Nazareth and asked the kids ‘What do you want to get out of this year?’ The kids responded. They’ve played good ball every since.”
For Libertyville (11-6 overall, 2-4 in the division), dependable Griffin Pils had 17 of his 20 points in the second half and Ellis Matthews had a 16-point night. But together, they were 11-of-40 from the field.
And other than Anthony Mack’s eight points, the rest of the Cats totaled just one point.
“Since we beat Notre Dame at Wheeling (Christmas tourney), we’ve fallen behind by double-digits in three straight league games,” said Cats coach Scott Bogumil. “We’re getting wide-open looks early and we can’t finish. We have to expend all our energy coming back.”
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