By Michael Letendre
BRISTOL – The Bristol Eastern girls basketball program enters the week of January 22 just a victory away from getting back to .500 and off a sterling 41-12 win over Career Magnet on Saturday – propelling head coach Tony Floyd to his 600th win – the mentor knows the value of winning close games.
Already to date, the Lancers – 6-7 overall – have played in four games that have resulted in three losses by four points or less.
Eastern is just 1-3 over those contests with just a 41-39 win over Northwest Catholic back on January 6 going to the positive side.
Setbacks to Middletown (58-57), Enfield (45-42) and rival Bristol Central (42-38) haven’t allowed the Kingsteeters to sneak past even although the squad is playing much better than its sub-.500 ledger indicates.
“It’s tough when we’re losing these close ones,” said Floyd after the three-point loss at home to Enfield. “I told them they’re going to have a lot of close ones. That’s where we’re at this year.”
“Hopefully we start winning some of these, stealing a couple of these things. We’ll get there.”
Depth has been an issue with the squad as of late.
Eastern is using just six players over recent outings but help is coming very soon.
Floyd had one player leave the team while two other youngsters, Tavian Swain and Jayne Mosley, were contributing off the bench before injury struck the duo.
Swain played some minutes as a back-up guard while Mosley helped tremendously in the front court to spell the likes of Leah Roy and Lauren Ayotte.
Without those players, Amanda Noel has been the first – and only – player off the bench for the Lancers during a tough stretch of games.
“We’re just six deep right now,” said Floyd. “Hopefully, we get Tavian back from a concussion and big Jayle Evins-Mosley – another talented freshman – gets her [walking] boot off next weekend. She’s a goods sized kid who can rebound and give us some depth inside.”
After playing in every game this season before the injury, it might take Evins-Mosley a little time to catch back up, but her minutes and contributions always prove timely for the Lancers.
But those two players, even spelling the starting core for a minute or two, gives the line-up a bit of a rest and in a close game, every hoop and every rebound counts.
Speaking of rebounds, Floyd wants his squad to do a better job on the boards.
Against Enfield last week, the Lancers were out-rebounded 21-13 on the offensive glass and it seemed like the Eagles made every second and third shot count when it mattered most.
That was the difference in Enfield winning and Eastern drawing a tough loss that night.
But if freshman Autumn Udoh (team-high 10.6 rebounds-per-game through 12 games), Taigan Parent, Vanessa Drury, Roy, Ayotte and company can start putting back some of those missed shots, flipping them into second chance points, the Lancers should be able to snare away a win or two just from their improved rebounding efforts.
“If we don’t do a better job on the boards, we’re not going to win any games,” said Floyd. “We know that’s an area we have to work hard on. We need to work harder at defending the post players inside.”
“We’re working in there [but] it’s not coming as fast as I thought it would, but it’s been better than it was two weeks ago.”
Health is the most important thing to the Lancers and if Floyd is able to turn to eight healthy bodies or so every game, Eastern will be very tough over the second half of the season.
“Hopefully, when it comes to tournament time, we’ll be okay down the stretch,” said Floyd. “That’s what I’m looking for.”
