As Lake Forest’s boys basketball team broke its huddle Friday night, senior forward Evan Boudreaux had a brief conversation with senior guard Jack Traynor.
“I went up to him, and he looked at me and said, ‘I will get you the ball.’ I said, ‘Yeah, you need to get me the ball,’ ” Boudreaux said.
The exchange occurred just as the Scouts began the fourth quarter of the Class 4A Waukegan Sectional final against Stevenson. Lake Forest lost the game 57-49, but with 4:03 left to play, the deficit was 46-34.
That’s when Boudreaux got the ball. And the fans crammed inside Waukegan’s gymnasium will be forever grateful.
“He has something a lot of guys don’t have,” Lake Forest coach Phil LaScala said.
In a span of 2:23, Boudreaux sank three three-point shots. His final one, with 1:40 remaining, cut the deficit to 50-45. Lake Forest’s defensive strategy in the waning minutes was to pick up pressure in the full court and keep the ball out of the hands of Patriots guard Jalen Brunson, an 82 percent free throw shooter.
“We doubled up on [Brunson] and did some different things,” LaScala said.
Having a Patriot other than Brunson shoot free throws was a vital part of the plan. With just under a minute left, Stevenson senior guard Matt Johnson missed two free throws. On the ensuing possession, Boudreaux was fouled by Brunson.
Boudreaux calmly stepped to the line and made two free throws. Stevenson led 52-49 with 41.7 seconds left. The timestamp takes on historical context with this fact — the points were Nos. 2,076 and 2,077 for Boudreaux, the last of his record-setting Lake Forest career.
On the next Patriots possession, Boudreaux (who finished the game with 30 points) fouled senior forward Parker Nichols. Nichols had to be helped up by teammates after the collision.
“All game, they were acting like they should have won an Academy Award. As hard as it may have looked, I didn’t shove him that hard,” Boudreaux said. “He made it look like I ran him over with my truck.”
Nichols made one of two free throws to make it 53-49. Lake Forest’s next possession resulted in a turnover. Patriots senior guard Connor Cashaw missed two more free throws, giving the ball back to the Scouts with 30 seconds left. But another turnover sealed their fate. The season-ending loss was just Lake Forest’s third of 2014-15. All three defeats came at the hand of the Patriots.
The 28 wins are the most in school history.
“We battled as hard as we could. That’s the thing about this group, whatever the situation, whatever the environment, we always found a way to get back in it,” Traynor said.
Several minutes after the final buzzer, Boudreaux emerged from the locker room. He walked past waiting fans to the center of the court. Standing inside the circle, he squatted down, resting his hands on his head.
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Before he took his blue and gold Lake Forest uniform off for the last time, Boudreaux wanted to make one final memory.
“It was something I wanted to do. Just kind of one last moment,” he said. “The last four years have been special, and not just basketball. As a team, the support we had from the community was incredible. The packed houses, the games we had sold out. We brought the community together and people are going to remember that for a long time.”
Jon Kerr is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.