By Michael Letendre
NEW BRITAIN – The Bristol Eastern boys basketball team gave it a whirl against New Britain on Friday night, hanging on until the end but eventually falling by six, 56-50, dropping to 2-4 on the campaign over the CCC Region B challenge.
The Lancers’ long range game came alive as the squad drained ten 3-pointers, trailed by two late, but just ran out of gas in the end.
“I thought we moved the ball, we got open looks, we played as a team and we ran our offense pretty good,” said Eastern coach Bunty Ray. “But late in the game, it was the same old story.”
The Hurricanes made big baskets late, showing excellent balance as Justice Carter flipped in a team-high 14 points while Xavier Goode (nine points) hit all three of his 3s over the first 15 minutes of the contest.
Tyrone Cummings added 10 points while New Britain big man, Demir Kandic, came off the pine for 10 points – producing all his offense over second-half play.
“Obviously, Cummings comes back. He’s a factor. He’s a very athletic kid,” said Ray. “The big [Kandic] comes back. He’s more than we can handle inside. So we work our butt off to defend and all of a sudden, the big kid – who is 6-foot-10 – grabs it and puts it in and now you’ve got to set-up your pressure.”
Eastern’s Elijah Parent led all players with 20 points and seven assists while Josh Kolano added 11 points and six rebounds.
Trini Otero contributed seven points and three rebounds, Nasir Walker-Jenkins came off the bench to collected seven points, three assists and four steals and Jack Stavens buried a 3 for the Lancers.
Neither team led by double-figures over the showdown but the Lancers’ deficit was three possessions with 3:25 to play (52-45).
“We got tired,” said Ray. “We went back to old habits. There was too much one-on-one, not paying attention out of timeouts, not being able to do the things we needed to do in order to get better shots, not making the extra pass, not paying attention to detail against a little rinky-dink press. We didn’t get stops when they set up their pressure which got us out of rhythm.”
But Eastern came out scorching hot, going 5-for-5 from deep as Kolano hit two 3s, Parent added a couple more and Stavens hit one from deep as the visitors led 18-15 towards the tail-end of the first period.
Both squads were knotted at 18-18 to open the second stanza but the Lancers went on a 9-0 run to snare a 27-18 push.
Parent canned a jumper, Otero hit a 3, Walker-Jenkins made a steal and a lay-up and when Parent finished the jaunt with another hoop, it was a nine-point game with 5:21 remaining in the half.
But the Hurricanes ended the second period with a 15-2 dash as Goode splashed in two 3s, Carter hit another, and when Tyler Nolan (six points) ended the frame with a hoop, the home team led 33-29 at the half – hitting 7-of-11 three-pointers overall to that point of the game.
“I have to credit [New Britain],” said Ray. “I scouted them a bunch of times and watched a lot of film. They didn’t make that many shots [on film]. I don’t know if that was our defense. I felt like we were doing a decent job but they were knocking down shots. They shot a high percentage of 3s and that wasn’t them two or three games ago.”
Eastern struck first in the third period with Parent hitting a baseline jumper and when the point guard found Otero for a little hook shot, the game was tied at 33-33 with New Britain calling an early timeout.
From there, the Hurricanes went on a 15-2 run to end the frame as Kandic had six points to help his team snare a 44-35 cushion through three completed quarters.
“We just lost every timeout today,” said Ray. “Every time we came out of a timeout or a stoppage, we didn’t execute [and] you’ve got to execute against athletic teams.”
Halfway through the final tilt, Eastern trailed 50-42 but the Lancers chipped away, using an 8-2 run to get back into it as Parent drained his last three and off a Walker steal – leading to a hoop by Parent – the Kingstreeters trailed just 52-50 with 1:51 left.
Thirty seconds later, Cummings drilled a lay-up from the baseline, Parent’s following attempt, a good looking 3, just rimmed out and Eastern was forced to foul the rest of the way.
With time running out, Carter bagged two free throws and the Lancers did not score again as New Britain hung on for a 56-50 win.
“I have to be honest, I liked our effort,” said Ray. “I mean, we were very undermanned against that team but we showed a little bit of grit. I just wish we executed a little bit better and it’s aggravating. It’s aggravating when you don’t do the little things you need to do to beat teams.”
“But I’m not trading my kids for anybody. We’ve just got to get back and work harder. I’ve got to work harder and we’ve just got to be able to figure out when something is done to us, how we can then make a play against it.”
CCC Region B boys basketball
NEW BRITAIN 56, BRISTOL EASTERN 50
from New Britain high school
Bristol Eastern (2-4) 18 11 6 15 – 50
New Britain (3-3) 18 15 11 12 – 56
BRISTOL EASTERN (50): Nasir Walker-Jenkins 3 0 7, Elijah Parent 8 0 20, Josh Kolano 3 2 11, Dylan Woodsome 0 0 0, Trini Otero 3 0 7, Jack Stavens 1 0 3, Tyler Donohue 1 0 2, Axel Fernandez 0 0 0, Trevor Nohilly 0 0 0. Totals: 19 2 50.
NEW BRITAIN (56): Justice Carter 4 3 14, Jayden Andujar 2 0 5, Tyrone Cummings 5 0 10, Xavier Goode 3 0 9, Tyler Nolan 3 0 6, Dontay Bishop 1 0 2, Demir Kandic 3 4 10. Totals: 21 7 56.
Three-point goals: Parent (BE) 4, Kolano (BE) 3, Walker (BE), Otero (BE), Stavens (BE), Carter (NB) 3, Goode (NB) 3, Andujar (NB).
Records: New Britain 3-3 overall; Bristol Eastern 2-4
