Boudreaux Propels Lake Forest to Regional Title

Evan Boudreaux may be just a freshman, but he played more like a seasoned veteran Friday at the Class 4A regional championship in Palatine.

Boudreaux contributed a huge fourth quarter, scoring seven of his 13 points, grabbing 10 of his game-high 19 rebounds and blocking a pair of shots to boot to help the Scouts pull away from Fremd, 51-33.

"Everybody tells me to go to the boards hard," said Boudreaux, who finished with five blocked shots. "Obviously it paid off in the fourth quarter. I am excited. This is the best I have ever played."

The victory earned the Scouts another shot at Warren next Tuesday (March 6) at the Barrington sectional. The Blue Devils (24-3), seeded No. 1 in the sectional, stopped Stevenson, 58-48, Friday night. Warren knocked off Lake Forest in the two previous North Suburban Conference meetings this year.

"We are excited to keep playing," Lake Forest coach Phil LaScala said. "Warren is a very good team and it will take another great effort by us."

Just a year ago, Lake Forest advanced to the regional finals, only to lose to Fremd, 44-38. Friday night marked the Scouts first regional title since 2009.

Both Lake Forest and Fremd struggled offensively in the first half with the Scouts (18-10) leading 19-12 at the break.

Fremd (17-12) staked its only lead of the game when Garrett Peters knocked down a three-pointer with 5:24 left in the first half. Lake Forest then held the Vikings scoreless for the rest of the half. The Scouts built a 24-16 lead, but Fremd rallied behind a pair of three-pointers by Peters to close to 26-24 after three quarters.

"I didn't do much in the first half," Peters said. "I just wanted to give my team a charge there in the second half."

That is when Boudreaux took his game to the next level. He started a nine-point run by the Scouts with a basket and ended it with a three-pointer as Lake Forest pulled away for good with a 35-24 advantage.

The Scouts also received a strong effort from junior Sam Downey, who came off the bench to score 14 points, grab five rebounds and had two blocks. John Hayes added nine points.

"The last couple games we have been playing great defense," Downey said. "That has been our bread and butter all year."

LaScala was particularly pleased with his team's defensive effort as the Scouts limited the Vikings to 23 percent shooting (12-of-52) from the field.

“When you let up six and six in the first two quarters, I thought we did a great job,” LaScala said. “We still need to do a better job offensively, but defensively we did an awesome job.

Fremd coach Bob Widlowski was disappointed in his team’s shooting.

“We couldn’t get a shot to fall tonight,” Widlowski said. “I thought we got a lot of good looks. We just got the ball to rattle in and out at key times.

Adam Gorecki added 13 points and 8 rebounds for Fremd.

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