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Boucher Shines Again For Streaking Northwest
Chris Boucher doesn’t mind carrying the load for Northwest College.
He also has no problem sharing it.
Behind 30 points, 18 rebounds and 10 blocks from Boucher, and three other Trappers who scored in double figures, NWC pulled away for a 95-72 Region IX North victory over Casper College on Saturday at Cabre Gym in Powell.
Boucher’s game-high 30 points (on 10-of-15 shooting) gave him his fourth contest with 21-plus points in his last five, and second game with 30 or more in that same span. The Trappers are undefeated this season when the Canadian sophomore scores at least 20 points, and 0-3 when he fails to reach that mark.
Boucher did not play in NWC’s only other loss, but he proved again Saturday that the Trappers are hard to beat when he’s on the court.
“I’m just having a lot of fun right now, I feel great,” Boucher said after his most recent dominating performance. “It feels good to help my team because I know they’re out there to help me too.”
Boucher aided NWC (18-4, 3-1 Region IX North) on its way to a 44-31 halftime lead behind 16 points. He also had several blocks and rebounds in the game’s opening minutes as his team led by 11 with 14:13 left in the first half.
But he wasn’t alone.
Boucher’s sophomore teammate Nicky Desilien scored 13 first-half points, and finished with 22 after going 7-of-12 from the floor. Sophomore EJ Hubbard added 19 (7-of-13 from field goal range) and Daryle Morgan knocked down five of his eight attempts from the field and two free throws to chip in 12 points.
As a team, NWC converted 32 of 60 field goals, including seven of its 16 3-point tries.
“I thought we did a great job of getting our offense going early on,” NWC head coach Brian Erickson said. “I thought we did a good job of putting together enough runs to fend [Casper] off and get comfortable running our schemes.”
The Trappers started quickly on their way to their third straight Region IX North victory. Morgan scored a layup to open the scoring before Boucher drained a 3-pointer. Five minutes later, Desilien was fouled on a layup, which he converted before sinking the subsequent free throw to put his team ahead 15-4.
Casper (15-5, 3-2) attempted several rallies, including a 13-5 run that cut the host’s lead to 59-51 with under 12 minutes to play, but a Desilien triple ignited a 9-2 run finished by a Hubbard layup. And with a 68-53 advantage with 8:18 to go, the Trappers cruised the rest of the way.
“Just like every game, every team has runs, but it’s how you respond to them,” Hubbard said. “We got down a little bit and Casper cut the lead to eight, but we huddled up and said ‘All right, let’s pick it back up, let’s get back together and take off,’ and I think the end result showed that.”
The Thunderbirds were paced by Dylan Alexander’s 19 points, most of which came on the back of five 3-pointers. Keanu Peters followed with 16 points and Tanner Morgan had 11.
NWC’s recent string of success earned the team the 26th most votes in the NJCAA’s latest top 25 polls. Home wins over Little Big Horn College (7:30 p.m. Wednesday, after the Tribune went to press) and Miles Community College (8 p.m. Saturday) could potentially push the Trappers into the rankings. NWC defeated both LBH and MCC on Jan. 16-17.
But in light of the prospect of national recognition, Erickson plans to keep his players focused on end-of-season goals, not in-season benchmarks.
“I’ve talked to the guys about our overall goal, which is to finish first in the region, host the region tournament, be the region champs and then the national champs,” Erickson said. “Being in the top 25 is an accomplishment along the way, but it’s great for them, good job, but we’ve still got to move to the next game in order to get closer to our overall goals.”