By Michael Letendre
BRISTOL – The Bristol Eastern boys basketball team let another game against Maloney slip through their collective grasp on Thursday night – this time surrendering a tough 55-54 CCC South setback to the Spartans from the Thomas M. Monahan Gymnasium in Bristol.
With the victory, the Spartans (8-7) qualified for the postseason while the Lancers dropped to 8-6.
Eastern led 52-44 with 4:56 left to play but Maloney outscored the home team 11-2 to end the game, stealing it away from the Kingstreeters in the end.
“[I’m] very disappointed with that,” said Eastern coach Bunty Ray of the game. “Going over stuff in practice yesterday and then going out and going half-speed, obviously Maloney’s athletes are good. You can’t simulate how fast that goes but we should be better at this point of the season. That was ridiculous to come out and let them go on a run like that to start the game.”
“To our credit, we came back I guess [but] we can’t dig ourselves a hole.”
And when it came down to the game winning shots, Maloney sharp-shooter Marquis Ward (team-high 17 points) was fouled with 4.4 seconds to play and went to the free throw line for two.
He coolly canned both shots to give Maloney the lead for good at 55-54.
“Maloney made some really tough shots,” said Ray. “Ward’s a great player. They’ve got a guy that can make shots and keep them in the game.”
A desperation NBA range 3 by Eastern’s Jordan Chisholm at the buzzer just rimmed out as the Spartans came away with the ‘W.’
Chisholm was sensational once again for the Lancers as he hit 6-of-10 field goals – including 3-of-4 from deep – for 17 points while also snaring five rebounds, all off the bench.
“In games like that, he’s one of our better athletes,” said Ray of Chisholm. “Some of our guys, they play really well in the system, but he can make plays. That game wasn’t going to be anything that we could do off a pattern or anything on an offensive end. That was just a physical game where you need a skill set and Jordan has a skill set.”
Brayden Dauphinais also added 17 points, Lukas Sward hit for 10 points, four rebounds, and made three steals while Zaveyn Tate added 10 points, added a hefty 13 rebounds, to go along with three assists.
Nate Fries nabbed eight rebounds, Ben D’Amato dished off two assists and Isaiah Lawrence-Bynum grabbed a couple rebounds from the pine.
Both teams trailed by eight points at various points of the game but late in the fray, several missed opprotunies at the hoop by Eastern turned a late lead into an eventual deficit as time eventually ran out.
“We missed a ton of lay-ups,” said Ray. “In the first game [against Maloney], they missed a ton of lay-ups. Today, I thought we missed a ton of lay-ups. We didn’t play thought contact.”
Eastern committed nine first quarter turnovers, putting up six over the first 4:30 alone.
Maloney also nabbed several first period offensive rebounds for additional attempts at the hoop as a jumper by Mekhi Smith gave the visitors an 11-4 push with 1:37 left to go in the quarter.
“Forced drives, not going where you need to go, not putting the ball where we needed [it], and when teams get physical and they get into us, they just overwhelm us,” said Ray. “That’s what happened but even that being said, we got past the first wave [of the extended defense], we didn’t make the extra pass. They were jumping ball screens. They were switching screens and we were resorting to one-on-ones which we were getting, and we were getting to the rim.”
“We’ve got to make foul shots down the stretch, and we’ve got to be able to handle pressure.”
Maloney was held to 6-of-17 shooting from the field in the first frame and only led 13-6 through eight minutes off a tremendous start.
An offensive rebound and put-back by Ward with 5:10 left before the half saw Maloney surge ahead 20-12 but the program could not sustain the momentum.
A 16-2 burst by the Lancers, highlighted by three 3-pointers by Chisholm, propelled the Lancers to a 28-22 cushion with 70 seconds remaining before the break.
The teams ended up settling on a 28-26 score at the half as Eastern made up a ton of ground.
Dauphinais started the third tilt with a 3 and the Spartans, though pesky, could never recapture the lead in the stanza.
Maloney forward/center Tadrique Jones (11 points) drew his third foul with 6:01 to play in the third but the home team never truly took advantage of his absence in the paint.
“We got their big guy in foul trouble, and we couldn’t take advantage of it inside,” said Ray.
Maloney hit three big trifectas over the final 2:15 of the third, eventually tying things up at 44-44 before Sward took one final shot at it.
Dribbling through traffic, Sward tossed up a long three-pointer at the buzzer, nailed the shot, got fouled in the process and when he hit the free throw for a four-point play, Eastern was leading 48-44 off a twenty-point third period showing.
Maloney’s offense went silent to start the fourth as Chisholm and Dauphinais canned free throws and Dauphinais’s final charity toss with 4:56 left to play made it a 52-44 game.
Turnovers and rushed shots foiled things for Eastern from there because a field goal or two more could have ended the game for the Spartans.
Maloney then scored six straight points, capped by two foul shots by Jones, and with 2:43 left, Ray called for time as Eastern led just 52-50.
Tate followed up by going 1-of-2 from the line with the Lancers (53-50) up by three with 1:35 showing on the clock.
Off a missed Maloney 3, Jones nabbed the rebound, put back the miss – plus a foul – and off the and-1, the showdown was all tied up at 53-53 with 1:15 to play in regulation.
Dauphinais missed a shot from the baseline, Maloney grabbed the ball and used a ton of clock to wind things down.
With 19 seconds remaining, Smith was fouled, missed the front end of a one-and-one and as Tate grabbed the ball, he was fouled with 16.6 seconds left.
He made the first free throw but missed the second as Eastern was ahead again 54-53.
After another timeout, Ward had the ball and was looking for a game winning jumper.
As he took his shot from just in front of the Maloney bench, Tate fouled Ward with 4.4 seconds on the clock.
The Maloney star coolly sank both free tosses and the opponents led it 55-54.
After additional timeouts, Eastern got the ball in play, looking for a game-winning hoop.
Sward got the ball over to Chisholm, on the right side of the court, who hoisted a long 3 that just missed and, in the end, Eastern absorbed a tough one-point loss.
“It was tough at the end. I thought we had a good defensive possession,” said Ray. “You’ve got to contest the proper way. It just didn’t work out that way and [Ward] went on and made two free throws like he’s supposed to.”
Bristol Eastern Boys Basketball – CCC South Action
MALONEY 55, BRISTOL EASTERN 54
from the Thomas M. Monahan Gymnasium, Bristol
Maloney (8-7) 13 13 18 11 – 55
Bristol Eastern (8-6) 6 22 20 6 – 54
MALONEY (55): Tadrique Jones 4 3 11, Donte Kelly 3 0 6, Allen Lee 2 0 5, Mekhi Smith 4 0 11, Marquis Ward 6 4 17, Blake Beniqui 1 0 2, Jesus Martell 1 1 3. Totals: 21 8 55.
BRISTOL EASTERN (54): Nate Fries 0 0 0, Zaveyn Tate 2 6 10, Brayden Dauphinais 7 1 17, Lukas Sward 4 1 10, Ben D’Amato 0 0 0, Jordan Chisholm 6 1 17, Isaiah Lawrence-Bynum 0 0 0. Totals: 19 9 54.
Three-point goals: Lee (M), Smith (M) 3, Ward (M), Dauphinais (BE) 2, Sward (BE), Chisholm (BE) 4.
Records: Maloney 8-7 overall; Bristol Eastern 8-6.
