ROCKFORD — Boylan leader Ben Ambrose scored 33 points.
Not in one game.
All last year.
But the 5-foot-10 senior is now the clear reason Boylan is leading the NIC-10 boys basketball race for the third year in a row.
Boylan (15-9, 10-2) was picked by the Register Star to finish fifth in the NIC-10. That would be a huge fall; the Titans haven’t been lower than third in the last 34 years. They didn't fall; the Titans are once again on top of the league tied with Auburn after edging Jefferson on Friday, mostly because of Ambrose.
Ambrose, who leads the Titans with an 11.0 point average, already has eight times as many points as he scored all last year. And he has been at his best when Boylan needed him most. Ambrose scored 36 points in two close wins against East, picked to finish second in the conference. And he scored 18, including 10 in the fourth quarter, in a 56-53 win over preseason favorite Jefferson. Jake Bergstrom scored 27 points to rally Boylan from an 11-point deficit to a 62-58 win over Jefferson on Friday, but once again Ambrose scored three critical points from the free-throw line in the late going.
Against East last week, Ambrose made six straight free throws to snap a 44-all tie with two minutes left and lead East to a 50-44 win. In that early three-point win over Jefferson, he was 8-for-8 from the line in the fourth quarter. Ambrose shoots 91 percent from the line. No one wants to foul him. Yet he has easily made more free throws (58) than any other Titan. Jack Zuba is a distant second with 37.
“The team just has a sense of where he’s at,” coach Brett McAllister said. “It’s almost like a heightened alert. Not only do we know we have to get him open through our screening and our sets, but we have to have a bull's-eye on him, and everybody has to be aware of it on the floor.”
“He’s put teams away and iced games,” Zuba said. “If other teams want to keep fouling him, we’ll let them do it, but we have other guys who can step up, too. But he’s obviously the go-to guy. As a point guard, having someone like that to kick the ball out to on the perimeter has been great for our offense.”
The Titans' go-to guy the previous two years was two-time conference MVP Zach Couper, whose 23.2 scoring average last year was the highest in the NIC-10 in 11 years. This team isn’t like that. Ambrose is the biggest Titan star, but he’s 5-10, not 6-5 like Couper, and his scoring average is half of Couper’s.
Yet the Titans have kept winning, with Ambrose helping them pull out a series of close wins, including a 10-point lead over Guilford after trailing by five at the half and a five-point win over Belvidere, two teams in the bottom half of the NIC-10.
“Our margin for error is less,” McAllister said. “At the same time, our kids have really understood that. They know how hard we have to do things and play for the full 32 minutes. Knowing that, they play more of a full game that some teams that have a ton of talent and might have the mindset they can get away with a few things. But our kids realize if they play a full 32 minutes, we can be pretty special.
“In those closer games, like East last week, we come and talk in the huddle and you see everyone is leaning over and invested, living and dying off of every word. That’s the most enjoyable part. The success is what it is, but we all seem to be in this together and having so much fun. Together.”
“It is a lot of fun,” Ambrose said, “but we really do need to dominate some teams. I think we have it in us to do that.”
Ambrose thinks the Titans, who will drop down to Class 3A in the playoffs again after being in 4A last year, can make a postseason run, but all eyes now are on winning their third consecutive NIC-10 title.
And that quest starts with Ambrose willing the Titans to win so many close games.
“A ton of that is what he has inside,” McAllister said. “That’s not to say that he’s not ultra-talented, but he’s only 5-10. It’s really special to see what he’s doing.”
Ambrose is used to close finishes. In the fall, he was one of the golfers that helped Boylan edge Hononegah and Guilford in maybe the closest NIC-10 boys golf race ever.
“I just try to make shots when they are open,” said Ambrose, who leads Boylan with 44 3-pointers, “defend whoever Coach tells me to, dig in on defense and be tough with the ball. At the end of games when I’m getting fouled, it’s usually because they are trying to get the ball back. Just being strong with the ball and not letting them take it from me is the biggest part to getting to the line.”
That doesn’t sound flashy. For good reason: It’s not flashy.
None of these Titans are flashy. Not like Jefferson, which had three returning first-team all-conference players. Boylan just finds a way to get it done. Usually with the ball in Ben Ambrose’s hands.
“It’s been a blast,” Ambrose said. “We push each other every day. We will go from hating each other in practice, getting after each other, to being best friends off the court.
“It’s been a blast this season.”
Matt Trowbridge: 815-987-1383; mtrowbridge@rrstar.com; @matttrowbridge