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Sophomore Leads Northwest To Region Wins
He’s said it before, but Nicky Desilien has no other way to describe his best friend.
“Chris is just Chris,” Desilien said of Northwest College sophomore sensation and teammate Chris Boucher. “Chris is a freak of nature.”
In two Region IX North home victories at Cabre Gym last week, a Jan. 28 blowout of Little Big Horn College and a thrashing of Miles Community College on Saturday, the “freak” fueled the Trappers with back-to-back 27-point efforts to go with a combined 31 rebounds and 14 blocks.
Boucher has been on a tear over NWC’s past seven games, averaging 26.5 points, 14.7 rebounds and six blocks per contest. Boucher said the Trappers’ holiday break provided him with renewed motivation.
“Just going back home [to Canada] to see my mom over the holidays ... that was one of the best things ... and just to see my family,” he said. “When I went back to see them, I realized why I’ve been working so hard here at Northwest, and when I came back after break I said ‘You know what, I’m going to do everything I can for them.’”
Boucher has lived up to that proclamation recently, and he certainly had help last week as seven Trappers in total reached double figures in the blowout victories. The recent string of wins has also helped NWC crack the NJCAA Division I Top 25, where the Trappers currently sit at No. 24 after just missing the cut last week.
NWC 111, MILES COMMUNITY COLLEGE 82
After barely escaping Miles C.C. for a five-point, come-from-behind road win on Jan. 17, NWC (19-4, 7-1 Region IX North) looked like a different team against the Pioneers.
The Trappers caught a break when MCC’s top scoring threat, Teslim Idris, picked up three quick fouls. He finished with just 11 points in 15 minutes.
The Pioneers absorbed another blow when 6-10 big man Emmanuel Olufemi suffered a broken nose in the game’s first two minutes. This left a hole open in the post and the lane, allowing Boucher to have a field day inside.
“Our best player gets into foul trouble, and our big guy broke his nose and didn’t play the rest of the game ... so our rotations were goofy and we didn’t have any defensive presence inside to contain their inside game,” Pioneers head coach Chase Tait said, adding that Boucher made life difficult for his team following the bad breaks.
“He’s a major game-changer,” Tait said. “There’s a reason why big-time DI schools are up here watching him play — he’s a very good basketball player.”
Boucher spelled the end of MCC’s last real threat with a bucket that ignited a 31-3 game-sealing run. He turned a one-point NWC lead into a 27-23 cushion with a 3-pointer midway through the first half.
After Desilien drained two free throws, Boucher slammed home an alley-oop on a pass from freshman Ammar Rehman. He then converted a traditional three-point play on a fouled jumper and added two more free throws for seven straight points that made it a 36-23 ballgame.
Boucher finished the first half with 17 points and sophomore EJ Hubbard added eight of his 13 as the Trappers went into the break with a 55-26 advantage.
“About the first eight minutes or so, we weren’t playing real well,” NWC head coach Brian Erickson said. “But we went about those last 12, and we started playing our defense, stopping penetration on the perimeter and not letting Miles get second shots.
“It really showed tonight that we’re a good offensive team, but our defense made our offense when we went on that big run in the first half.”
Sophomore Daryle Morgan caught fire in the second half, scoring 11 of his 15 points after the break. Desilien added 10 points and four assists. Boucher finished with 17 rebounds and seven blocks.
NWC 122, LITTLE BIG HORN 90
Little Big Horn College gave a little more effort in its second Region IX meeting with NWC, this time at Cabre Gym.
The only problem was the Trappers upped their effort, too.
Having already downed the Rams 94-81 on Jan. 16, NWC continued its string of impressive performances at home with a 122- 90 drubbing of Little Big Horn on Jan. 28.
The Trappers struggled to pull away early, as Little Big Horn turned to the 3-pointer to stay within striking distance of the hosts. When Boucher knocked down a layup to push his team’s first-half lead to 12-6, the Rams’ Marty Wallace answered with a trey.
Morgan answered with a three of his own, but Wallace fired back with another triple. After a Dan Milota jumper gave NWC a 17-12 edge, Chad Cunningham made good from long distance to trim the lead to two.
Zak Ait Ahmoudali’s 3-pointer later started a quick 6-0 Rams burst that made it a 23-21 Trapper lead, but Ammar Rehman answered for NWC with back-to-back buckets that ignited a 39-16 burst that put the game away by halftime.
“Really, our goal when we played [Little Big Horn] before and going into this one was to guard the 3-point line, because they’re just so good from there,” Erickson said. “The first half they made some, and we made some mistakes on our end. We weren’t doing things very crisp, but I was happy with our guys stepping up in the second half.”
One of those players was sophomore Desilien, who played a majority of his nine minutes in the second half to finish with eight points. Desilien was limited due to an illness.
Boucher again led the Trappers with 27 points to go with game-highs in rebounds (14) and blocks (seven). Rehman and Tyler Chandler scored 11 points apiece, and Colin May added 10.
NWC fired a robust 56 percent from the floor (46-of-82), including 11 3-pointers. Little Big Horn responded with 45-percent shooting including 14 treys from seven players. Six Rams reached double figures in the points column, paced by Cunningham’s 22.