Boys Basketball: Connor Boehm pushes New Trier past Foreman
Updated: March 2, 2012 11:32PM
Scott Fricke estimated he’s let his players have it at the half four times this season.
Friday was one of those occasions.
Disappointed with how his team played the second quarter, the New Trier coach made sure the players knew all about it.
Connor Boehm and the top-seeded Trevians got the message and won themselves a regional title at Niles West with their 65-41 victory over eighth-seeded Foreman.
“No doubt our attitude and some of our body language during the second quarter wasn’t what it was supposed to be,” said Boehm, whose team held a slim 25-22 advantage at intermission after Foreman’s 11-0 surge during the second quarter. “Coach Fricke let us know. We needed that, and we responded.
“We were not aggressive enough in the second quarter when they made that run.”
No. 17-ranked New Trier (22-5) asserted itself in the second half, especially in the fourth quarter when the Trevians outscored the Hornets 20-4.
The Dartmouth-bound Boehm was big at the end of the third quarter and at the start of the fourth. The 6-foot-7 forward scored five points in the final two minutes of the third and then another five early in the fourth to help the Trevians out to a 52-37 lead with 6:51 to go in the game.
Boehm finished with a game-high 23 points.
Ricky White scored Foreman’s only field goal in the fourth, and Clearance Boyce contributed two free throws. The Hornets (20-5) had their season ended by New Trier for the second time in a row.
With about three minutes remaining, Reid Berman shut the door with a three-point play and then two free throws.
“I was really disappointed with the way we finished the first half,” Fricke said. “We were not going to end the season we’ve had playing like that. We needed to get the ball inside and attack with the dribble.
“We knew they were going to pressure us, but we needed to go after their pressure.”
New Trier led 11-2 after the first quarter and was up 11 in the second after Boehm’s basket.
But the Foreman flipped a switch and got right back into the game behind Marcus Gatlin, who scored 10 of his team-best 13 in the second quarter.
Carl White kept the Hornets close in the third with eight of his 12 points.
Gatlin’s three-pointer left the score 40-35 in favor of the Trevians, but that was all the Hornets had left.
Boehm pushed the lead up to 10, and the Trevians took over in the fourth quarter.
Berman, whose banked-in three at the buzzer gave New Trier its edge at the break, followed Boehm with 15 points. Steven Cook added 11 points, and Austin Angel contributed 10 points.
New Trier turned over the ball 10 times in the first half, but the Trevians backcourt of David Bragiel, Jordan Thomas and Berman were more composed in the final 16 minutes.
“I’ve been on this team a while now,” Boehm said. “When you play basketball at New Trier, winning a regional is an expectation. There was no way we were coming in here and losing this game. We all had that mindset.”
New Trier moves on to the Glenbrook South Sectional, where the Trevians will play Evanston on Tuesday. The teams split the season series.
“It’s going to be fun,” Boehm said.
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