By Michael Letendre

NEW HAVEN –  Chemistry is a critical ingredient in any successful scholastic sports program.

If you have the right mix and balance, your team could be headed to very big things by the time the postseason rolls around.

But along with chemistry comes consistency and those two elements go hand in hand.

And the boys basketball team over at Bristol Central have both those attributes in droves.

So, when you stick veterans such as Donovan Clingan, Damion Glasper, Carson Rivoira, Steve Alseph and Victor Rosa all on the same squad, what’s the ultimate result?

You get 27 games played (27 games started), 27 straight wins in 2021-22 and 42 consecutive victories overall with the same starting five players.

That senior core played 135 total games between the five of them this season and the results have been of devastating proportions. 

“You can’t underestimate the seniors,” said Central coach Tim Barrette after his squad defeated Wilton in overtime on Tuesday. 

And that’s not an overnight sensation as four out of those five senior players have been in the Bristol Central trenches the entire ride since they were freshmen.

Then this season, Alseph was added to the mix as he transferred in from Waterbury.

That’s like a chef with an award-winning dish adding a secret ingredient to the meal that puts it over the top.

But Alseph has hardly been a dash of nutmeg to Bristol Central’s four-course meal.

Putting the slick shooting and gritty guard into the mix now makes that meal a five-course masterpiece.

Here’s something else to consider about this senior group for the Rams.

Along with fellow seniors Jelani Walton, Zach Vanasse and Aaron Brown, that grouping is responsible in scoring 1,715 of the team’s total 1,909 points.

That means 90-percent of the program’s offense comes from that group of eight men — all seniors.

That’s the value of having senior play, senior leadership and everything that comes along with four-year athletes.

And to come that close to scoring 2,000 points in a season is a tremendous accomplishment for any scholastic program.

While people realize that Clingan is the ultimate bailout, being able to carry Central offensively for a half, the whole game doesn’t work like that for the locals as the Rams.

Frankly, that squad isn’t assembled to operate like that.

If Clingan gets triple-teamed, he passes the ball over to Glasper (10.9 points-per-game, 34 three-pointers) for a baseline three.

If the Rams goes to its vaunted 1-3-1 zone press — something we didn’t witness against Wilton — Rosa (4.9 ppg, 12 3s) and Alseph (6.3 ppg, 17 3s) are there for steals and lay-ups.

And Rivoira (7.9 ppg, 12 3s) always seems poised for a timely three, a put-back or a tough and-1 as he attacks the hoop with zest.

This squad is the ultimate, undefeated team in the state of Connecticut at 27-0 and is, perhaps, on the cusp of something extraordinary — a CIAC Division II title.

But don’t forget, Wilton had a boatload of seniors in its program too.

That 54-52 overtime win for Central over Wilton was that close because over a dozen seniors left their imprint on an amazing game people won’t soon forget.

“[Wilton] had seven seniors on their roster as well so you had two senior laden teams going at each other that don’t want to go home. [It was] nothing less than a war,” Barrette said. 

“But I tell my guys all the time I am glad I can go to war with my five seniors any day of the week.”

Now, the Central program is just over a day away from its first championship tilt since 1990.

And you better believe that Central’s senior class is going to pounce all over Northwest Catholic (25-2) to seize its second ever state championship. 

“They’ve got us this far,” said Barrette of the seniors. “We’ve got to take care of business on Saturday.”