January 31, 2007

     Someday, when Stacy Boisvert looks back at her college career, she very well might point to January 2007 as the month when she began to make her mark on the American International College basketball program.
     It's not that Boisvert, a three-sport athlete (basketball, lacrosse and volleyball) at Agawam High School, hadn't already made an impact on the Yellow Jackets. Last season, as a freshman, the two-time All-Scholastic cager stepped right into a starting role and averaged 20 minutes per game for a team that came within a half-dozen points of winning the NCAA Division II national championship. She averaged 5.4 points and 4.2 rebounds.
     But this January, the 6-foot forward has begun to show two things - the physical ability to dominate, and the heart to do it in the games in which it's needed.
     After Saturday's 68-57 victory over St. Michael's, in which she matched her career best effort, with 21 points and 14 rebounds, Boisvert was averaging 12.3 points and 8.8 rebounds in seven January outings.
     Boisvert, who is averaging 9.1 points and 7.0 rebounds overall, began the month with a breakout 21-point, 14-rebound effort in a 58-55 victory over Franklin Pierce. She had 16 points and eight rebounds in a 72-62 loss to undefeated Southern Connecticut, and scored 13 points and grabbed nine rebounds in a six-point win over UMass Lowell.
     "I think I've played pretty well, especially the last four or five games. I don't think I played that well for a stretch right before that, but I feel I'm playing better since," says Boisvert. "After last season, the coaches told me I'd played well and that they had high expectations for me this year. They felt I could average double figures this year, and I'm still trying to do that, as well as improving my rebounding."
     Boisvert has already shown she's not afraid to adjust, or to do the work necessary to succeed.
     An admittedly "pretty bad" free throw shooter in high school, Boisvert has made 56 of 70 free throws, a sparkling .800 percentage. ("I changed how I shoot them two summers ago, and it seems to be working").
     She's also put in the effort to get physically stronger.
     "Last year my biggest thing was strength. In high school all the girls were weaker than me, but I got here and got pushed around a lot," she says. "I worked hard on that in the offseason, and I think I've gotten stronger, but I still have a way to go. Coach has still been harping on that this year."