By Michael Letendre

BRISTOL – The Bristol Central boys basketball squad continued to roll through the 2021 scholastic campaign and against Plainville on Monday, March 8, it was more of the same.

Behind another career night from Donovan Clingan, the Rams zipped up a 74-41 CCC Region B victory from the Charles C. Marsh Gymnasium in Bristol to move to 9-0 overall.

And the big man might have put together his finest performance of the year against the pesky Blue Devils (1-7).

Clingan flipped in a career-high tying 37 points to go along with 17 rebounds and eight blocked shots while dropping in his first three-pointer of the season.

But even before Clingan put his first points on the board, Central was already ahead in the showdown for good.

With the ball snapping around early in the Rams’ share the wealth offense, six different players scored over first period play.

“You’ve seen [Central] in the beginning of the season and you’ve seen them tonight. I think we’ve definitely improved on moving the basketball,” said Central coach Tim Barrette. “When we share the ball, and it doesn’t become my turn basketball, we’re a really good team.”

Damion Grasper (nine points) connected on five early points and Vin Rosa (career-high nine points) and Carson Rivoira (five points) each hit a free throw to make it a 7-2 game just 2:30 in.

Off a 3 by Plainville’s Omar Miller (10 points), Central went on a 13-3 run as Sean Wininger (four points) found Rivoira for a hoop, Clingan dropped in five points, Glasper stepped into a floater and when D’Ante Ross (six points) hit a good looking jumper, the Rams lead reached 12 before settling on a 20-10 edge after one quarter of play.  

“Inside-out, we got some lay-ups early,” said Barrette. “Damion attacked the glass early, Victor attacked the [hoop] tonight and if we miss from there, a lot of times, we’re going to get the ball back anyways because between Donovan and Carson, those two are going to get the rebound because they fight like crazy on the offensive end.”

“That’s our best offense because when guys go to help, they’re open for the offensive rebound and obviously, a lot of that ends up in two points even if we miss the lay-up.”

Clingan hit Central’s first five shots of the second stanza and baskets by Wininger and Rosa helped increase the Rams’ lead to 34-12 with 3:29 remaining before the halftime break.

Threes from Plainville’s Alec Couture (six points) and Miller chopped the deficit to 17 but Central’s outstanding big man finished the first half with zest.

Two thunderous dunks by Donovan – plus a hustle put-back by the Central center at the buzzer – propelled the Rams to a 42-19 push at intermission.

“Those guys have to keep attacking and not settling,” said Barrette of his team. “We took three 3-pointers in the first half and scored forty-two points. That was my message at halftime. You got forty-two points on one three-point make. Keep attacking the glass, keep going hard, get to the free throw line, and good things will happen.”

Central eventually pushed the Plainville deficit out to 46-21 and when Rosa found Donovan for a high-percentage bucket, it was a 50-26 contest with 2:26 remaining in the third tilt.

But the Blue Devils finished the period with a 13-1 run, turning defense into offense, and when Plainville guard Tyshawn Johnson (team-high 19 points) splashed in a 35-foot three-pointer at the third quarter buzzer, the Blue Devils were hanging around – trailing 51-39 with eight minutes to go.

Plainville refused to yield into the fourth frame and when Miller zipped in a floater with 5:57 left to go in regulation, the visiting aggression was down 55-41 but still in it.

“They made some shots in that run,” said Barrette of Plainville. “Give them credit for that. They had one more spurt in them. They called a couple timeouts, got it down to 14 at one point but next thing you know, [our lead] was back up to thirty. It’s how you answer runs.”

And the Blue Devils never scored again as Central netted the final 19 points of the showdown to take the game.

To end the evening, Clingan blasted in his first 3 of the season, Rivoira put-back a missed shot, Ross drained two free throws, Eli Rodriguez hit a lay-up and off an offensive rebound and put-back by Julius Powell, Central netted a big thirty-three point victory to remain perfect on the season.

The Rams are still looking for a consistent thirty-two effort and hopefully that arrives in time for postseason play.

“We talked about it after [the game], when you start playing teams in the CCC Tournament, if we get in the top bracket, we can’t have three minutes lapses and we had a three minute lapse” against Plainville said Barrette. “Bristol Central basketball has been really good for 24-26 minutes a game. It’s that six minutes that we have to clean up and that comes from practicing hard.”

“We got to have better practices starting tomorrow.”

NOTES…It was senior night at Central and the program honored its senior core of Nicolas Jones, Devon Astacio, Dominic Amara, Eli Rodriguez, D’Ante Ross, and Sean Wininger before the opening line-ups were announced.

CCC Region B boys basketball

BRISTOL CENTRAL 74, PLAINVILLE 41

from the Charles C. Marsh Gymnasium

Plainville (1-7)        10 9 20 2 – 41

Bristol Central (9-0) 20 22 9 23 – 74 

PLAINVILLE (41): Alec Couture 2 0 6, Dylan Hall 0 0 0, Omarion Miller 4 0 10, Tyshawn Johnson 6 5 19, Brennan Staubley 1 0 2, A.J. Lestini 2 0 4. Totals: 15 5 41.

BRISTOL CENTRAL (74): Mike Allan 0 0 0, Victor Rosa 3 3 9, Damion Glasper 4 0 9, Tre Blair 0 0 0, Eli Rodriguez 1 0 2, Tre Jones 0 0 0, Mason Stokes 0 0 0, D’Ante Ross 2 2 6, Dominic Amara 0 0 0, Sean Wininger 2 0 4, Devon Astacio 0 0 0, Donovan Clingan 17 2 37, Carson Rivoira 2 1 5, Aaron Brown 0 0 0, Julius Powell 1 0 2. Totals: 32 8 74.

Three-point goals: Couture (P) 2, Miller (P), Johnson (P) 2, Glasper (BC), Clingan (BC).

Records: Bristol Central 9-0; Plainville 1-7