By Michael Letendre
BRISTOL – The Bristol Central boys basketball team started its 2021 campaign off in predictable fashion, defeating Avon (78-76) and posting a victory over Bristol Eastern (66-51) in its first city series entanglement of the year.
That Avon squad ended up giving a tired Central squad fits over the final quarter or so on February 10 but the locals made all the big plays late to seal the deal.
The Rams dropped 51 first-half points on the Falcons, outscoring Avon over the first three quarters of play to secure a 66-46 push.
And then the Falcons came alive for 30 fourth period points as the visitors eventually knotted the score at 72-72.
Jack Hall, after Central center Donovan Clingan, is probably the second best player in the CCC Region B division and a handful for even the best teams with his quick and smooth jumper.
Hall ended the game with 29 points – helping fuel that massive fourth period rally – as Avon outscored Central by 18.
However, the Rams held on to win and that was thanks in part to Damion Glasper who drained a career-high 21 points on 8-of-12 shooting to go along with four rebounds and five assists.
Anytime you get that kind of contribution from that outstanding junior guard, your team is in great shape.
Central’s frontline players were all on-point against Avon as well.
Sean Wininger racked up a double-double of 12 points and 11 rebounds while Clingan tallied another one of those video game stat lines.
On 16-of-21 shooting from the field (good grief), he ended his evening with 35 points, 12 rebounds and three blocked shots.
That group of athletes helped Central shoot 59-percent from the field overall.
“I’m a lucky guy to coach those bigs,” said Central coach Tim Barrette. “I say it every day. My bigs work hard.”
Two days later, that frontcourt of Clingan, Wininger, and Carson Rivoira netted 54 total points in Central’s 15-point victory over Eastern.
Clingan re-tied his career-high of 37 points, adding 18 rebounds and four rejections to his awesome numbers while Wininger flashed in nine points over critical points of the showdown.
But the two-way play from Rivoira was outstanding as he punched in a new career-high of eight points. And his pin-point passing skills were on full display in Central’s high-low offensive schemes.
He ended the contest with four assists and made Eastern’s Elijah Parent (18 points) work a little harder for his offense that evening.
“Carson’s my glue guy,” said Barrette. “He’s a bulldog and he took it personally. Elijah had [11] points over the first six or eight minutes. And he took it personally that [Parent] was scoring. You saw what Carson did to [Parent] in the second half. He really made it difficult for Elijah who is a really, really good player.”
Barrette saw improvement from the Avon contest in terms of finishing the game with zest.
Central, leading by just 12 points after three completed frame against Eastern (47-35), quickly went to its big man and a 20-point cushion soon followed before he exited the contest for good.
“I think tonight we had our legs a lot more that the first night” against Avon said Barrette. “We scored 51 points in the first half versus Avon and we were gassed. Our players were gassed. We were gassed yesterday at practice [Before the Eastern game]. Yesterday was a much lighter day than normal on a prep day but I found we needed it.”
Central was missing a couple players against Eastern but what ended up being more than a little troubling was when Glasper tweaked his ankle towards the tail end of the showdown and had to exit the game.
At the completion of the game, Glasper had a huge bag of ice on his foot.
Frankly, the only thing that can derail a Central victory this season is injury, COVID protocols, just plain old absences due to all the usual wintertime tomfoolery or the bus driver dropping the players off at the wrong gymnasium.
Otherwise, the Bristol Central boys basketball squad is built for the long haul, though the trip this year isn’t quite so long.
And when someone goes down, the next man is up off the Central bench – ready for the challenge.
“We were a little shorthanded tonight,” said Barrette of the Eastern contest. “Without D’Ante Ross (COVID protocol) and Victor Rosa couldn’t make it tonight and I knew this. So you lose your starting point guard and then Damion goes down in the fourth quarter [and] you’re looking at your top two guards [being] out.”
“[But] Elijah Rodriguez did a very good job in the second half [against Eastern]. Roberto Negron-Cruz, same thing.”
