By Michael Letendre
BRISTOL – Once again, the Bristol Eastern girls basketball team is headed to the Central Connecticut Conference Tournament and, at least in first round play, the Lancers are going to be in familiar territory.
The Kingstreeters, due to its 10-10 regular season finish (8-8 in the CCC), earned the final seed in the fray and – just like the past two seasons – gets to square off against powerful Newington (14-1) to open the tournament.
The Nor’easters are the top ranked program this season while Eastern, like last year, earned the final slot (No. 16).
In tournament play in 2022, the Newington program, behind the outstanding abilities of Lilly Ferguson, was able to topple the Lancers by a 63-39 final.
The victors reached the CCC finals before falling to East Hartford over a thrilling 31-30 championship showdown.
And back in 2021, Eastern fell to Newington (55-35) to open the 2021 CCC championship bracket.
In that first round bout from last year between the Lancers and Nor’easters, future Pace Women’s basketball star Ciara Collins dropped in 28 points to go along with nine rebounds to lead the Eastern squad.
Taigan Parent led the team that day with four assists and this time around, the shooting stud gets another crack at Newington in the CCCs.
Parent is playing well this year, just five points shy of 300 for the season.
She’s boasting averages of 14.8 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.9 steals-per-game while draining 55 threes along the way.
The soon to be CCC South All-Conference guard will have to be closely monitored on the court along with Autumn Udoh (11.2 points, 10.5 rebounds, 4.6 blocked shots-per-game) and the slick passing Vanessa Drury (8.5 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 3.7 apg, 3.3 steals-per-game).
Leah Roy (2.6 ppg, 6.8 rpg), Lauren Ayotte (2.3 ppg, 3.8 rpg) and sixth man Amanda Noel (2.4 ppg, 2.8 rpg) makes up a unit that will have to find ways to slow down a tremendous Newington offense.
The Nor’easters appear to be locked into the fifth slot in the upcoming Class L championships and will be a formidable opponent for the Lancers in the opening round of the CCCs.
The squad is 16-3 overall with its lone in conference setback coming at the hands of Windsor (42-31) back on opening night.
The CCC runner-up last season started the year at 2-2 before winning 14 of its final 15 regular games and is currently enjoying an eight-game win streak.
The Nor’easters last setback came back on January 16 as Newington lost to St. John Vianney of New Jersey (81-38) from Springfield College in Massachusetts.
During that winning streak, the CCC’s top seed defeated Enfield (64-45), Southington (43-40) and dropped Wethersfield (50-31) on the road this past Monday.
Eastern has its work cut out for it but the locals typically respond well to a challenge and are expecting a competitive bout on the road.
Here’s the line-up for the CCC Tournament this year:
2023 Central Connecticut Conference Girls Basketball Tournament
Thursday, February 16 – First Round (from the site of the higher seed)
Saturday, February 18 – Quarterfinals (from the Ivan Wood Gymnasium, Plainville)
Tuesday, February 21 – Semifinals (from the University of Hartford)
Thursday, February 23 – CCC Finals (from the University of Hartford)
First Round Bracket – All Games commence at 6 p.m.
No. 16 Bristol Eastern (8-8 CCC) at No. 1 Newington (14-1)
No. 15 5 East Hartford (8-8) at No. 2 Edwin O. Smith (14-2)
No. 14 Berlin (9-7) at No. 3 Glastonbury (13-3)
No. 13 Rocky Hill (8-6) at No. 4 Simsbury (13-3)
No. 12 Avon (9-6) at No. 5 Bristol Central (12-3)
No. 11 South Windsor (10-6) at. No. 6 Conard (12-4)
No. 10 RHAM (11-5) at No. 7 Windsor (11-4)
No. 9 Enfield (11-5) at No. 8 New Britain (11-4)
