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Boudreau does it again, Andover wins Christmas tourney title

Wednesday, December, 29 By Christopher Smith
Staff writer

METHUEN — Nicole Boudreau has been stepping up huge in big games her whole entire life.
Her twin sister Danielle Boudreau, who was born 9 minutes before Nicole, still clearly remembers the time when Nicole was 12 years old and poured in two 3-pointers with time running out to lead their church league team to a one-point victory.
“She thrives off the crowd,” Danielle said. “The bigger (the game) the better. She just works off the energy and she’s an amazing player. But when she’s put under pressure, she really knows how to step up.”
Boudreau played in another big game yesterday and put on another big performance. The 2010 Eagle-Tribune Player of the Year and the Boston College bound Boudreau led Andover to a 66-41 victory in the championship game of the Greater Lawrence Christmas Tourney here at Methuen High School yesterday.
She was named the tournament MVP for the second straight year.
Her statistics likely would have been better yesterday but she played just 26 minutes and sat out most of the fourth quarter because her team was ahead by so many points. She finished with a game-high 25 points to go along with six rebounds, three assists, four steals and one blocked shot. She was 5 of 10 from the 3-point line and 2 for 2 from the foul line.
Boudreau was awesome. She always has been awesome, Danielle said.
“In Hooptown, which was a camp that we did when we started (basketball), I remember she was about 8 years old and we knew right away that she had the talent,” Danielle said. “They played her right away against a great high school boy, (Andover’s) Tommy McLaughlin. He was probably a 6-4 great player. She played him one-on-one in front of the entire camp. She went under his legs and scored against him.”
Yesterday, Pinkerton’s Michelle Reid had the difficult task of guarding Boudreau.
“She’s a challenge,” Reid said. “But it’s always nice to be able to come up to that challenge and try to do your best.”
Boudreau has been mentioned so many times in The Eagle-Tribune since she was a young player, but Danielle said her sister never gets a big head.
“Every morning my dad sets out the newspaper so when we wake up it’s right there,” Danielle said. “He wakes up at like 6 in the morning so it’s always ready. She doesn’t get cocky at all. She just loves reading them. My mom keeps a scrapbook of every single article that’s ever in the paper. She has like four books now.”
Nicole not only thrives in big games but seems to love playing at Methuen High, where in the Christmas tourney title game last year she had an immense performance, scoring 39 points on 9-of-12 shooting from 3-point range.
“We always say this is our second home because we’ve played here so many times in the past couple of years,” Nicole said. “It’s a great shooting gym. We’ve got a little bit of background and we’re just comfortable here.”