Boys Basketball: New Trier tops Niles North despite Lorenzo Dillard’s huge output

Updated: February 21, 2012 10:59PM

Who says second place can’t steal the show?

The CSL championship game has a tough act to follow after No. 17 New Trier (21-5, 8-2 CSL) pulled off a 93-84 thrilling overtime victory over Niles North (18-8, 7-3 CSL) in Skokie on Tuesday.

Although his team was on the cruel end of the stick, junior Lorenzo Dillard had a game to remember as he scored 45 points and the game-tying shot at the end of regulation.

“It was a minor setback for a major comeback,” said Dillard taking about his transfer to Niles North. “I turned myself around, changed my old ways and I’m finally being the person that I want to be.”

Lorenzo, who transferred from Evanston last January, was fairly unknown prior to the game with Malachi Nix and Mychael Henley in the lineup.

Even with Dillard’s clutch scoring, the Vikings had trouble on the defensive end.

After being triple teamed at times in the first half, senior center Connor Boehm guided his team to a victory with 32 points and 14 rebounds.

“Obviously they had a guy that was shooting really hot tonight,” said Boehm. “I was just happy with the way that our guys responded. Every time that they would come down and shoot the ball, we would come down and make a great play or a great stop.”

Down 11 with five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, Niles North rallied on the back of Lorenzo who scored 12 of his team’s final 17 points in regulation.

The momentum and the crowd were on the Vikings’ side, but the experience of the Trevians kicked in as they opened up overtime on an 8-0 run and never looked back.

Junior forward Steven Cook gave Boehm a little help with 12 points and 10 boards and senior guard Austin Angel finished with 20 points.

Nix and Henley didn’t slouch either while supporting Dillard.

Nix wrapped up the loss with 16 points and five rebounds and Henley tallied 12 points and four boards.

Both teams feel ready and prepared to play more with regionals coming up next week.

“I think we’re ready for the playoffs,” Boehm said. “We lost three straight a while back and now we’re on a three game winning streak, which is always good to have some momentum going towards the playoffs.”

The Trevians will open up postseason play next Tuesday as the No. 1 seed in the Niles West Regional and will face either the Wolves or Amundsen.

Niles North will host its regional as the No. 7 seed and will meet No. 10 Loyola next Wednesday in the semifinals.

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