By Michael Letendre
BRISTOL – The Bristol Eastern and Lewis Mills boys basketball programs took their CCC South confrontation down to the wire on Saturday afternoon.
And while the Lancers gamely fought against the Spartans, Mills was able to pull out a 49-48 victory on Saturday afternoon in a make-up game from the Thomas M. Monahan Gymnasium in Bristol.
The Spartans (11-4 overall) played a spirited defensive contest, doing just enough to keep the Kingstreeters (8-7) from capturing a late lead.
The confrontation was close as close could be as 12 lead changes and six ties left things in doubt until he very end.
And when Eastern needed to respond with a late hoop, Mills answered the bell defensively to stave off the hungry Lancers.
“I lot of that I’m going to give credit to Lewis Mills,” said Eastern coach Bunty Ray. “I thought they did a good job defensively. They challenged everything. There were no easy shots. We worked for what we had to do. I think they did the same.”
“It was looking in the mirror, two teams that were kind of going at each other.”
Photos by Herve’
Over the final two minutes of the contest, Mills hit 6-of-8 pressure packed free throws and captured a four-point edge (49-45) with nine seconds to play.
“A big theme for this team this season has been focused on mental toughness,” said Lewis Mills coach Ryan Raponey. “We have ways where we try to get past moments where things don’t exactly work out in our favor. It’s not saying just because you’re mentally tough doesn’t mean not going to turn [the ball] over. It doesn’t mean you’re going to make every layup. It doesn’t mean you’re knocking down every shot or covering every single assignment you should, and we certainly didn’t tonight, but when push came to shove, we knew this game was going to be a grind.”
“And we have a next point wins mentality right now where we’ve got to dig in on every single play and when things don’t go our way, we have to move past it quickly and I’m happy we were able to do that enough tonight to come out at the end.”
Eastern got Mills in foul trouble off the bat, marching to free throw line five times over first period play.
The Lancers made 5-of-8 attempts and shot 50-percent from the field over that stretch as Eastern forward Zaveyn Tate (team-high 15 points, nine rebounds, two assists) notched seven quick points.
But the Kingstreeters couldn’t break away as Connor McAtee (game-high 16 points) canned a lay-up at the buzzer – making it a 13-13 game through one frame.
Eastern’s Nate Fries (two points, four rebounds) found Brayden Dauphinais (nine points, two assists) for a 3 with 4:51 left before the half to give Eastern a 16-14 edge as the home team attempted to add to its slim lead.
But Mills ended the half on a 10-4 burst with Jack Stanislaw (14 points) connected on four lay-ups, burning Eastern’s backdoor, while his defense on Dauphinais helped to give the visitors a 24-20 push at the half.
“Stanislaw covers some of the best players in this league,” said Raponey of his forward standout. “He draws that assignment night in and night out. He’s the type of kid that would never even complain about it. He wants it. He wants that responsibility. He’s a rare breed, a three-sport athlete and [basketball] admittedly is probably his third sport.”
“He just doesn’t take any plays off. He just goes out there and he guards the best guy every night.”
Eastern trailed by six early in the third quarter but the home team struck back with a 10-4 jaunt of its own.
Tate started and ended the run with strong lay-ups at the hoop and with 3:31 to play in the third, the Kingstreeters scooped up a 35-34 edge.
“He’s pressure release, really, for us,” said Ray of Tate. “When they’re pressuring our guards, he’s able to make plays inside. He did his job today. He plays as hard as he can. As a sophomore, he’s a great player.”
“I don’t think they got away from us because of him.”
A jumper by Eastern’s Lukas Sward (13 points) ended the scoring for both squads in the third tilt as Mills held a slim 38-37 lead with eight minutes left.
Jordan Chisholm opened the fourth frame with a 3 as Eastern nabbed its final lead of the afternoon at 40-38.
From there, the Spartans’ Connor Evans (nine points) quickly hit two free throws and when sharpshooter Jon Schibi (eight points, all scored in the second half) drained his only 3 of the game with 5:39 left in the showdown, Mills led 43-40 and never trailed again.
As the game slowed to a crawl, Tate sank home another high-percentage hoop, and when Schibi hit 1-of-2 free throws, Eastern was just down two (44-42) with 2:00 minutes left and had the ball.
Eventually, Dauphinais was fouled, making one of two from the line, to trim the deficit to 44-43 with 48.5 seconds remaining in regulation.
Mills then went to its stall with a lead in hand, Eastern was forced to foul, and Schibi – with the visitors in the 1-and-1 bonus – hit both charity tosses to push the lead out to 46-43 with 30.4 seconds remaining.
Dauphinais later missed a late-up, McAtee hit two foul shots, and with 17 seconds left, Mills was in control at 48-43.
“These guys are drawing on some experience,” said Raponey of his squad. “When we had some issues last season, some of our frontline starters were out with Covid, injury and all that stuff, these guys played a role in keeping us in games but unfortunately not getting us Ws in some of those games early last year. I think that experience is helping them a lot right now.”
To end the game, Sward banked in a hoop, Schibi split a pair of free throws before Sward drained a big three with three seconds left – getting Eastern within a point (49-48).
But the Spartans never inbounded the ball, running out the clock, as Eastern fell by a one-point final.
“I subbed early to try to keep our legs for the second half,” said Ray. “Isaiah Lawrence-Bynum (three rebounds, three steals) went in there. [Mills] has two bigs that post problems. We went to a couple different line-ups defensively. It changes offense when you go to defense but at the same time, we defensively did a good a job as you can, and it stinks there were two blown coverages that cost you the game after you put in the work like that.”
“There were a couple loose balls there that would have given us a little spurt or kept it even closer for us. That’s basketball.”
Bristol Eastern Boys Basketball – CCC South Action
LEWIS MILLS 49, BRISTOL EASTERN 48
from the Thomas M. Monahan Gymnasium, Bristol
Lewis Mills (11-4) 11 13 14 11 – 49
Bristol Eastern (8-7) 11 9 17 11 – 48
LEWIS MILLS (49): Gavin Daly 0 0 0, Jon Schibi 2 3 8, Eli Pelletier 0 0 0, Charlee Joiner 1 0 2, Jack Stanislaw 7 0 14, Connor McAtee 5 5 16, Jack Nestor 0 0 0, Connor Evans 3 3 9, Jacob Hall 0 0 0. Totals: 18 11 49.
BRISTOL EASTERN (48): Nate Fries 1 0 2, Zaveyn Tate 5 5 15, Brayden Dauphinais 3 2 9, Lukas Sward 6 0 13, Ben D’Amato 1 1 4, Jordan Chisholm 1 0 3, Isaiah Lawrence-Bynum 1 0 2, Dante DePass 0 0 0, Brady Bell 0 0 0. Totals: 18 8 48.
Three-point goals: McAtee (LM), Schibi (LM), Dauphinais (BE), Sward (BE), Chisholm (BE), D’Amato (BE).
Records: Lewis Mills overall 11-4; Bristol Eastern 8-7.
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