By Michael Letendre
BRISTOL – For reasons only known to the basketball gods, the boys squad from Plainville High School always seems to give its counterparts over at Bristol Central some serious heartburn.
And that came to pass on Tuesday night when the Blue Devils held a 40-33 lead over the Rams with 6:09 remaining in regulation.
But Central flipped the script on Plainville, going on a game-ending 17-1 run to pull out a 50-41 CCC South victory from the Charles C. Marsh Gymnasium in Bristol.
Central moved back to .500 (3-3) with the win while Plainville (1-5) let one slip away late.
So, what changed for Central over the closing minutes of the showdown?
“The energy, that’s all it really was,” said Central center Jayeson VanBeveren. “We picked up on the defense and turned it into offense. We started finishing. We started being smarter with the ball.”
And that defense was executed by every member on the floor wearing maroon and once Carmelo Thompson (six points) drained a jumper off an offensive rebound, Central captured a 41-40 edge with 2:47 left and never relented.
Late steals by VanBeveren (team-high 18 points, seven rebounds, 7-of-10 free throws) and Aiden Lopez – who was a pest defensively – also had a late theft to seal the deal in Central’s favor.
“I thought Aiden Lopez provided a spark during the last ten minutes of the game,” said Central coach Tim Barrette. “He did a really good job after Tre [Blair] had [foul trouble] but just Lopez in general, he’s a really good athlete. [We’re] trying to find ways to utilize him. He doesn’t play basketball much of the year because of his baseball career but he did a nice job and gave us a nice emotional lift tonight.”
VanBeveren was clutch from the charity stripe late, canning 5-of-6 free throws to make it a three-possession game over the closing seconds.
Plainville, on the flip side, simply didn’t have any answers late outside of an M.J. Bakaysa (three points) three throw.
“Jay VanBeveren did what he was supposed to do as a senior,” said Barrette. “Him and Melo the last five minutes of the game, basically our best two players offensively, took over.”
Central had to survive the first quarter onslaught of Plainville’s Joseph Vasquez who slipped nine of his game-high 22 points over first period play.
He tallied all but one point for Plainville but three-point plays by Mikey McMahon (nine points, three 3-pointers), VanBeveren and Jonmanuel Gomez (five points) gave Central an 11-10 edge after one period.
The Rams then held the Blue Devils to five second quarter points as the offensive flow slowed down to a crawl.
Gomez added another hoop and VanBeveren dropped in two baskets over the stanza as Central led 19-15 at the break.
Plainville’s Nate Saucier caught fire in the third as he drained a huge three-pointer, plus a foul, and then added another 3 with 2:15 left as the home team trailed 31-24.
McMahon followed with a trifecta of his own, Tre Blair (five points) added a runner but when Vasquez connected on a conventional three-point play, Plainville took a 34-29 edge into the final eight minutes of action.
Thompson found VanBeveren early in the fourth for a hoop to make it a three-point game early but a mini 6-3 push by the Blue Devils gave the squad a 40-33 lead with 6:09 to play.
Aiden and the defense took charge soon after as Plainville couldn’t stop Central turning those miscues, forced shots and turnovers into offense.
Plainville went over four minutes without a point and off a Blair floater, a VanBeveren hook shot, and two charity tosses and a jumper from Thompson, the visiting aggression was suddenly on the wrong end of the scoreboard.
Central’s Mike Allan (four points) then added a floater and Bakaysa hit his free throw, cutting the deficit to 43-41 with 1:50 showing on the clock.
But Plainville never scored again.
Central played keep-away a bit, forcing Plainville to commence several fouls and with 1:04 remaining, Lopez nailed a driving lay-up to make it a 45-41 contest to give Central some breathing room.
“I love that kid,” said VanBeveren of Lopez. “He always comes in one hundred percent, ready to work. And he shows it on the court.”
VanBeveren added his late steal, eventually forcing Central to the line for 1-and-1 situations.
After VanBeveren made both his tries with 31.1 seconds left, Lopez added his steal as the Blue Devils had to foul yet again.
VanBeveren iced things by making another free throw and with 23.2 seconds left, Central held an imposing 48-41 cushion.
“I was very happy over the last two minutes,” said Barrette. “We didn’t force anything. Lay-up only. Even Mike Allan at the end of the game, pulling the ball out with eight seconds left. He could have taken a lay-up to end that game.”
“They’re growing and maturing.”
After one final three-pointer by Vasquez failed to make the mark, Central’s leading scorer hit two final foul shots as the home team earned a hard-fought nine-point triumph.
“It’s a win, it was a must win,” said VanBeveren. “That’s all we have to do, just win every game we can.”
And with a host of games coming up, Central needed to seize all the additional momentum it could before some of the big boys of the CCC comes to town.
“We’re 3-3,” said Barrette. “We’d love to be 4-2. I think we gave one or two [games] away. But we have to do a better job in practice. We didn’t have a great practice yesterday and you know what? We played like we practiced yesterday in the first half especially coming out in the beginning of the third quarter. That was in excusable.”
“But to give these guys credit they battled, and I look at it like we escaped tonight.”
Bristol Central Boys Basketball – CCC South Confrontation
BRISTOL CENTRAL 50, PLAINVILLE 41
from the Charles C. Marsh Gymnasium
Plainville (1-5) 10 5 19 7 – 41
Bristol Central (3-3) 7 8 17 14 – 50
PLAINVILLE (41): Roman Lee 1 2 4, Brady Wieczorek 0 2 2, Joseph Vasquez 9 2 22, Jayden Castro 1 0 3, M.J. Bakaysa 1 1 3, Nate Saucier 2 1 7, Alex Ortiz 0 0 0, Nijaz Srdanovic 0 0 0. Totals: 14 8 41.
BRISTOL CENTRAL (50): Mikey McMahon 3 0 9, Mike Allan 2 0 4, Tre Blair 2 1 5, Carmelo Thompson 2 3 7,Mason Stokes 0 0 0, Aiden Lopez 1 0 2, Jayeson VanBeveren 5 7 18, Jonmanuel Gomez 2 1 5, Harry Ross 0 0 0. Totals: 17 12 50.
Three-point goals: Vasquez (P) 2, Castro (P), Saucier (P) 2, McMahon (BC) 3, VanBeveren (BC).
Records: Bristol Central 3-3 overall; Plainville 1-5.
ReplyForward
