By Michael Letendre
MERIDEN – Over the past three seasons, the engine of the Bristol Eastern boys basketball team has been Lukas Sward.
The point guard has grown by leaps and bounds since his sophomore campaign and now, the senior is having himself a tremendous final season.
And on Thursday night, in a gymnasium Eastern has struggled in over the years, the Kingstreeters finally earned a ‘W’ at Platt – zipping up a huge 60-49 CCC South victory in Meriden to move to 3-0 on the season.
Sward played possessed at times, hitting the offensive glass, charging through traffic and finishing strongly at the hoop under tremendous defensive pressure.
The bulldog ended his evening with new career-highs in points (27) and rebounds (10) in what could only be termed as a man-sized effort.
“That was a game where there was extreme pressure out front and we needed someone to relive the pressure,” said Eastern coach Bunty Ray of Sward. “He’s such a good athlete and he was able to get through the first wave [of defenders]. He’s our best ball-handler. Instead of passing through it, we thought we could make one pass and skip, get him in position to break their pressure and go to the basket.”
“He was able to finish, he was able to negotiate the court, [and] he was able to reverse the ball.”
It wasn’t just a one-man show as Sward had plenty of help on the hardwood.
Battling leg cramps, Zaveyn Tate (eight points, nine rebounds) just missed out on a double-double while Brayden Dauphinais had another big game.
He flashed in eight points, seven rebounds, dished off a team best five assists while also compiling two steals.
“Just like Lukas, Dauph had a great game around the basket, around the boards,” said Ray of Dauphinais. “There was a lot of dirty work going on out there, plays that we kept alive [with] tips. I thought we did a great job on loose balls.”
Jordan Chisholm added seven points and a couple rebounds, Brady Bell sized up two points and seven rebounds and Ben D’Amato, who has shot pretty well from long range at the Orville H. Platt Gymnasium over the years, scored six points via two three-point bombs.
With Tate hurting a bit, Isaiah Lawrence-Bynum (two rebounds) played 13 big minutes, adding plenty of defense and hustle as did Naseem Walker.
Eastern out-rebounded Platt 42-33 while turning the ball over just 13 times as the Panthers pressed the visitors over most of the encounter.
Naiem Gill led Platt with 14 points but the squad struggled to get good looks over the entire thirty-two minute encounter.
The Panthers missed their first 14 three-point attempts, hitting just 11-percent of those trifectas for the game, shot 38.5-percent overall from the field and threw the ball away 17 times.
Five lead changes highlighted a back-and-forth contest early and a slick 7-0 Lancers’ burst midway through the second quarter gave the road team the lead for good.
But it was up and down to start and it was an early 7-0 push by Eastern – highlighted by a 3 from D’Amato and a bucket by Lawrence-Bynum with 2:03 to go in the first period — to square up a 12-6 edge with 2:03 showing on the clock.
Two minutes into the second quarter, Chisholm drained a big 3, giving the Lancers a 17-10 lead.
Platt responded with an 8-0 jaunt – started and finished with buckets from Isaiah Summers (11 points) – as the Panthers etched up an 18-17 edge with 4:43 left before the break.
And when D’Amato canned his final three thirty seconds later, Eastern led 20-18, never trailing again.
Pesky Platt trimmed the deficit to two (24-22) at the half but to open the third period, it was all BE.
Sward scored 11 points in the third period, cobbled together eight points in a game-changing 14-4 run and when he cooked up two free throws, the Lancers held a 38-26 cushion with 3:10 left in the stanza.
Platt misfired on three or four charity tosses to end the third and with eight minutes to play, Eastern’s 44-32 push was holding fast.
Two lay-ups from Sward, thanks to continued outstanding defense, made it a 48-32 game with 5:58 to go but the home team eventually made one last ditch run at it.
Sward dropped in a jumper with 3:24 to play, giving Eastern a 52-37 lead, but that field goal was the last the Lancers scored.
Platt closed the deficit over a time-consuming 9-0 run – trimming the deficit to 52-46 off a lay-up from Summers – with 55.2 seconds left but the Lancers ate up chucks of time to starve out the clock.
“I thought we did a really good job of taking clock at the end there, and doing the little things and setting good screens,” said Ray. “And when Zaveyn goes out, that’s tough. Bynum had to step up and Dauph had a good [game].”
From there, Eastern connected on 6-of-8 free throws to ice the contest.
Sward hit the final four charity tosses for the Lancers as the locals held on to win by 11 points to stay undefeated in 2023.
“When it came down to the end of the game, Lukas is exhausted and I’m calling every isolation play for him so the ball gets into his hands,” said Ray. “What a warrior effort.”
NOTES…Eastern’s last win at Platt was that 97-62 thrashing on February 17, 2015…The squads only play each other once this year. On the flip side, the Kingstreeters will see Maloney this season twice within a week in consecutive Friday night showdowns on January 12 and 19.
Bristol Eastern Boys Basketball – CCC South Showdown
BRISTOL EASTERN 60, PLATT 49
from Orville H. Platt High School
Bristol Eastern (4-0) 14 10 20 16 – 60
Platt (0-4) 10 12 10 17 – 49
BRISTOL EASTERN (60): Brayden Dauphinais 3 1 8, Jordan Chisholm 3 0 7, Isiah Lawrence-Bynum 1 0 2, Zaveyn Tate 2 4 8, Lukas Sward 9 9 27, Brady Bell 1 0 2, Ben D’Amato 2 0 6, Naseem Walker 0 0 0. Totals: 21 14 60.
PLATT (49): Isaiah Summers 5 1 11, Antonio Brown 4 0 8, Efrain Brown 3 3 9, Naiem Gill 5 3 14, Tyler Cessario 1 0 3, Tim Boyd 2 0 4. Totals: 20 7 49.
Three-point goals: Brayden Dauphinais (BE), Jordan Chisholm (BE), Ben D’Amato (BE) 2, Naiem Gill (P), Tyler Cessario (P).
Records: Bristol Eastern 3-0 overall; Platt 0-2.
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