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METHUEN — Despite averaging 18.6 points, sophomore Nicole Boudreau wasn’t too pleased with the way she shot the ball in Andover’s first three games. “I’ve been working on my shot a lot,” she said. “I know I’ve been off the first couple of games and haven’t been shooting the best I could. It felt good coming out of the hand. It just never seemed to drop. So I’ve been in the gym working on my shot and today I just felt it.” Boudreau definitely looked like she felt it against Salem yesterday in the first round of the Greater Lawrence Girls Christmas Tournament. She scored 11 points during a 14-1 run to start the game. Boudreau scored 13 points in the first quarter and had 21 for the contest. She helped Andover wallop Salem 73-34 to secure a spot in the semifinals Monday against Methuen. Andover beat the Rangers 75-42 last Thursday. “Salem is aggressive and we knew we had to match their intensity,” Boudreau said. “To come out strong in the first five minutes is what our goal has been. I think that gets us off to a good start and demoralizes the other team.” Boudreau poured in four 3-pointers. “We self-destructed,” Blue Devils coach Liz Briggs said. “Turnovers, boxing out, following shots, hustling, calling transition defense — stuff we can control we did not control tonight.” Andover coach Jim Tildsley said: “That’s the best we’ve played all year on our pressure defense. They just couldn’t get it (up the court).” “We played them already but Rashidat (Agboola) didn’t play a lot in the first half because she was in foul trouble,” said Andover senior Alex Alois, who netted nine points against Salem. “So I’m looking forward to playing her again. I think it will be more challenging with her in the game and I’m excited.” Tildsley added, “Plus, we’re playing on their court, too. So we’ve got our work cut out for us.”

Andover 73, Salem 34 Salem (34): Raye 1-0-2, Galvin 3-0-6, Connors 1-2-4, Bujnowski 2-1-5, Vaudreuil 1-0-2, White 3-5-11, Rodriguez 2-0-4, Righini 0-0-0, Forrest 0-0-0. Totals: 13-8-34. Andover (73): Fazio 2-1-6, Gomez-Martinez 4-0-8, Caveney 3-3-11, Scarpa 1-0-3, Biles 3-0-7, J. Alois 1-0-2, Boudreau 7-3-21, A. Alois 4-1-9, Drivas 1-0-2, Bill 1-2-4, McDonald 0-0-0, Maturah 0-0-0, Beasley 0-0-0. Totals: 27-10-73 3-pointers: A — Fazio, Caveney 2, Scarpa. Biles, Boudreau 4 Andover (4-0):    22 8 23 20 — 73 Salem (2-2):     7 7  8 12 — 34

Pinkerton senior AJ Guidi’s shot was off the mark for much of the first 30 minutes, 48 seconds of yesterday’s Class L first-round game against Salem.
Her offensive wooes included missing her first five 3-point attempts. Still, Guidi wasn’t timid to toss up another 3-pointer with her team trailing by nine points with 1:12 remaining. Her shot sailed in and Pinkerton had new life. “I was off the whole game and just hitting that shot was kind of a big relief,” she said. “After that happened, everything else just started falling for us and fell in its place.”
Guidi, who shot 29 percent for the game, caught fire in the final 1:12 — as did the rest of her teammates. Guidi scored eight points during that time as she led Pinkerton on a 13-0 run to close out the game. No. 2 Pinkerton won 43-39 over Salem, which went just 0 for 6 from free throw line in the final 1:06. Katherine Harris called the game one the of the most exciting in which she has ever played. “Definitely, that was a crazy comeback,” she said. Guidi scored a game-high 18 points thanks to her nine points in the fourth quarter. “We kept our cool,” she said. “We kept our heads and we played defense at the end. I was getting a little frustrated but I knew that if I couldn’t make the shots, someone else could.” After Guidi’s 3-pointer, Salem missed a pair of free throws and the ball returned to the Astros. Pinkerton moved the ball around nicely, finding Danielle Kimball wide open in the corner. Kimball, a 5-foot-5 junior, had not scored all game but poured in a 3-pointers to cut the deficit to 39-36. “So much was going through my mind,” she said about taking it. “I knew we needed it. I air-balled shortly before that and I was so mad at myself for that. At that point we knew we needed 3s.” More missed free throws by Salem gave Pinkerton the ball back and Allie Ucich drew a foul with :40 left and made her shots to cut the Astros’ deficit to 39-38. “Honestly, I thought fourth quarter we were going to be done,” Ucich said. “I started to see everyone’s heads go down. When we hit those two 3s that was key. We were just like, ‘All right. We can do this.’ And we just dug in and hit our foul shots.” Pinkerton then used some strong defense to take its first lead of the game. Ucich tipped a pass being inbounded by Salem down near the Salem basket. Harris then grabbed the tip. She fired a pass near halfcourt to Laura Pierce who made a strong pass to Guidi who was streaking in toward the basket. Guidi caught the pass and scored her basket while being fouled. She made her free throws to give Pinkerton the 40-39 with 23 seconds left. “I was pumped,” she said. “After that I knew we had the game sealed the way the momentum was going in our favor. So we just kept the momentum up and the intensity up after that.” Salem coach Liz Briggs she said she proud of the way her girls played. “Finally, we could put some offense together,” she said. “Certainly in the first half and third quarter. We’ve trying to be offensive all year long. We had some people step up today.” She did mention the missed free throws as being one of the downfalls. “I could have probably told you about two weeks ago that might be our demise,” she said. “We haven’t been strong in that regard. Everyone had an opportunity to step up. We just kind of threw it away there at the end. At least we know next year we’ll be working real hard on our free throws.”

Another slow start doomed Salem in a 54-48 setback to Merrimack. Sophomore Kerry White turned in an impressive 13-point, 8-rebound effort for the Blue Devils while senior Nora Galvin was 5 for 11 from the field, also scoring 13 points.

Salem brought great team effort to the court but Winnacunnet's wealth of talent prevailed in a 70-46 victory. Jen Bujnowski had 11 points on 7 of 8 free throw shooting along with 8 rebounds for the Blue Devils, while Olivia Connors (8 points) drove to the hoop effectively.

Memorial hit 11 of 16 from the line in overtime to beat Salem 59-56. Down 30-20 at half, Salem outscored Memorial 15-2 in the third quarter. The visitors, though, regained the lead. Kerry White's 3-point play with nine seconds left forced OT.

Despite superb hustle on both ends of the court from Jen Bujnowski (18 points and 8 rebounds), Salem dropped a tough 47-42 verdict to Dover.

AJ Guidi pumped in 21 points as Pinkerton topped Salem 49-33.

Salem's Nora Galvin threw up an unbalanced shot from a few feet beyond the 3-point line right before the halftime buzzer sounded against North Andover in the fifth-place game of the tournament.