By Michael Letendre
BRISTOL – Trailing by six points in overtime against Plainville on Monday night, the Bristol Eastern boys basketball team withstood the first hit and then quickly went to work – posting a 7-0 run to retake the lead – and when the Blue Devils tied the contest up late, the Lancers turned to its senior leader for the knockout punch.
Nasir Walker-Jenkins hit the game-winning hoop with 39 seconds to play and Nate Fries followed up with three clutch charity tosses, leading Eastern to the pay window – downing pesky Plainville by a 58-53 final from the Thomas M. Monahan Gymnasium in Bristol.
The Lancers improved to 3-7 on the campaign while the Blue Devils fell to 2-8.
Defense fueled Eastern’s offense late as the Kingstreeters extended its pressure, forced a couple critical misses, and when it counted, the home squad made multiple hoops over the extra frame.
“We tried a couple different things on defense because Plainville’s a very familiar opponent,” said Eastern coach Bunty Ray. “We know what they’re going to do and they know what we’re going to do. It was just a matter of execution.”
Walker-Jenkins had another big showing against Plainville, sinking a game-high 19 points to go along with three rebounds, six assists, and two steals – scoring 11 points over the final 8:23 of the game, including four in OT.
“He picks up two fouls early,” said Ray of Walker-Jenkins. “He’s showing some immaturity but once again, this is a kid that comes back in the second half and says ‘I’m a senior, they’re some young kids out here. I’m going to create some shots for them [and] I’m going to make some shots I need to’ and you can’t say enough about what he did down the stretch.”
“He’s our leader.”
Fries was clutch off the pine, notching five of his career-high nine points in overtime.
His lay-up in the extra session erased Plainville’s final lead of the game while making 3-of-4 free throws to give the Lancers a little breathing room.
He also added four rebounds and two steals along a big-time effort.
“Nate Fries, I can’t say enough about his hustle plays,” said Ray.
Foul trouble bogged down second-half play from Eastern’s Brayden Dauphinais and Lukas Sward but the sophomore duo each tallied double-figures in scoring over the pressure filled contest.
Both netted 11 points as Sward (seven rebounds, two assists) and Dauphinais (five rebounds, two blocks, two steals) did a little of everything for the Lancers.
Isaiah Lawrence-Bynum posted a season-high 12 rebounds to go along with two steals, Ben D’Amato hit a 3, Jeremiah Tatum added four rebounds while Dante DePass hit two free throws midway through the third tilt.
Elijah Borgelin was a late scratch for the Lancers due to injury while Plainville used just six players in the fray as Cam Lamothe (foot) sat out as well.
Brennan Staubley (15 points) was lethal on the baseline, adding three 3-pointers and just missed a huge four-point play late.
Artem Mojica (13 points) flipped in huge circus shots throughout the game to keep things close, George James added 11 before fouling out while Joe Vasques scored his 11 points over the first three quarters of play.
Brady Wieczorek and M.J. Bakaysa both made plays for the Blue Devils over a close game in which neither squad led by more than six points.
“I knew today was just going to be about shot-making and play-making and [Plainville’s] got some guys making some plays,” said Ray. “They’re tough. That’s not an easy team. Records are deceiving today for both teams. We both play hard. We’re both playing better. [Plainville coach] Scot [Wenzel] does a great job as coach. They were down a couple guys but so were we. So I thought it was very, very important for us to be able to switch defenses enough to make them uncomfortable.”
“Down the stretch, we made some big shots to match them.”
A Dauphinais lay-up gave Eastern the lead midway through the first frame but Staubley canned a three and when Vasques made a steal and a hoop with 2:36 to go, the visitors led 9-6.
But a five-minute scoring drought by the Blue Devils saw Eastern push ahead as an 8-0 run – highlighted by a D’Amato 3-ball and a hoop from Walker-Jenkins – gave the home squad a 14-9 edge with 6:47 to play in the half.
Plainville wrestled the lead away late in the stanza when James hit a lay-up and free throw with 1:36 left before the break but Walker-Jenkins zipped in a 3 to end the first half scoring as Eastern seized a 21-19 push on its way to the locker room.
The back-and-forth play continued into the third tilt as each team held a couple leads but to end the period, Fries drilled a field goal and when Sward canned a late bucket, Eastern carried a slim 33-32 edge into the final stanza of regulation.
Plainville edged up a three-point lead off a Staubley jumper early in the fourth but once again, the teams battled down to the wire.
“They have some ball handlers, they have some playmakers, they have some guys that can do some things and they had answers,” said Ray of Plainville. “And for the most-part, we were guarding them man-to-man with a couple wrinkles here and there.”
Neither team carried more than a two-point edge in the fourth and with 1:22 left in regulation, Walker drained two free throws but James answered with a spin move to the hoop for two as it was a 46-46 game with 62 seconds remaining.
The teams then exchanged turnovers as Eastern was looking to close it out but Walker-Jenkins missed a late hoop.
Lawrence-Bynum grabbed the offensive rebound as Eastern called for timeout with 2.9 seconds showing on the clock.
One last Walker-Jenkins floater just rimmed out as time expired and four more minutes of basketball was put back on the scoreboard.
Staubley hit a 3 to open the extra period – as did Mojica – to propel Plainville to its biggest lead of the event at 52-46 with 3:02 left.
But from there, Eastern outscored the Blue Devils 12-1 to close it out as defense took over the game.
Sward hit a huge 3 to cut the deficit in half and off a Plainville turnover, Walker-Jenkins and Fried canned back-to-back lay-ups to give Eastern a 53-52 push with 1:07 remaining.
Mojica dropped in one-of-two free throws to tie the game up at 53-53 with 47.4 seconds left as the Blue Devils answered one final time.
Walker’s ensuing bucket gave the Lancers the edge for good at 55-53 as Plainville was trailing with 39 seconds to play.
Staubley missed two late jumpers, Fries dropped in three insurance foul shots and when the final horn sounded, Eastern picked up its second win in three tries over the 58-53 triumph.
“I thought both teams did a decent enough job defensively but [our] shot-making down the stretch” was the difference said Ray.
