By Michael Letendre
What an incredible season Bristol Central’s Donovan Clingan put together for the boys basketball team.
Frankly, Clingan’s run from start to finish might have been one of the best single-season performances in state history.
The Rams ended the season at 28-0 and the program went 43-0 over the past two years – winning every championship and title along the way.
And while Clingan will be in a different uniform in 2022-23 when Central continues its school record 43-game winning streak, the All-Stater leaves the program in a better position than when he joined it.
The two-time Gatorade Connecticut Player of the Year ended his amazing CIAC, Division II championship run with 2,268 points – the seventh most scored in the state history.
And after Clingan blasted Northwest Catholic (56-36) in the CIAC Division II Finals for 25 points, he surpassed Matt Curtis’s total of 2,263 points from Cheshire – vaulting the Bristol Central center into seventh place all-time on Connecticut’s career scholastic scoring list.
The second leading scorer in town, Carey Edwards (St. Paul, 1,835) trails Clingan by 433 points.
That is a whole season’s worth of scoring…and then some.
Season Numbers
For the year, Clingan ended his senior campaign with 847 points – good for an average of 30.3 points-per-game.
He canned 360 field goals, 10 three-pointers, and cashed in on 101 free throws.
The lost points of the pandemic
If you counted all the games lost due to the pandemic over Clingan’s sophomore and junior years, based on his scoring averages over those two seasons, 350 additional points weren’t out of the realm of possibility.
And some of those numbers could have been much higher.
That 350 could have slated him at 2,618 points overall which would have placed him second all-time right behind Walt Luckett (Kolbe Cathedral, 2,691 points).
If playoff runs between CCC and state tournament games could have been extended, Clingan had the potential to be Connecticut’s all-time leading scorer.
What an incredible ledger that young man put together during his times over at Bristol Central.
The fish that got away
The only record Clingan just fell short on grabbing was Bristol’s single game scoring record.
That still belongs to St. Paul’s Mark Noon who scored 52 points against Prince Tech back in 1974.
But Clingan’s 51 points against Windsor in the Rams’ 83-67 victory over the Warriors was one heck of a performance.
No one knew of Noon’s record at the Charles C. Marsh Gymnasium that evening because Clingan probably would have gone for it with about 30 seconds still left in the game.
But after the season – and career – Clingan just put together, does it really matter in the end?
The Bristol Central boys basketball program won the CIAC Division II championship, took home the CCC South and CCC Boys Tournament titles, holds the school record for points and rebounds, and leaves as the Mum City’s all-time leading scorer for both boys and girls.
And what’s going to happen when Clingan hits Gampel Pavilion on the UCONN campus this coming fall as a freshman for the men’s basketball program?
Frankly, Clingan’s story is just unfolding and its should be a fun ride to see what the 7-foot-2 center accomplishes at the collegiate level.
Up next…
Over the week, TBE will look at more from this state championship group as we celebrate the boys basketball program over at BCHS.
The List
Here’s a look at Connecticut’s scholastic all-time leading scorers at the conclusion of the winter scholastic campaign:
CIAC Boys 2,000-point scorers
1. Walt Luckett, Kolbe Cathedral, 2,691
2. Tom Roy, South Windsor, 2,501
3. Anthony Harris, Danbury, 2,491
4. Alex Jensen, Stonington, 2,357
5. Rashamel Jones, Trinity Catholic, 2,301
6. Tyshon Rogers, Crosby, 2,292
7. Donovan Clingan, Bristol Central, 2,268
8. Matt Curtis, Cheshire, 2,263
