By Michael Letendre

Bristol’s Elijah Parent, a shooting guard playing at the United States Coast Guard Academy, has helped the men’s basketball team to an 8-2 record through 10 games — starting every game.

The former Bristol Eastern standout had a huge game at St. Mary’s on Dec. 30, helping the squad to an impressive 83-59 triumph on the road from the Michael P. O’Brien ARC Arena in Saint Mary’s City, Md.

Parent filled up the stat sheet over the victorious effort, posting one of his best all-around games of his colligate career.

In 33 minutes, Parent hit 9-of-11 field goals, splashed in 4-of-6 from three-point territory, collected seven rebounds and dished out four assists.

All those numbers were career highs for the talented Parent competing for the Coast Guard.

He also stole the ball four times — also a career best – and committed just a couple of turnovers.

It was the program’s fourth consecutive win as the team did not lose a game during the month of December.

The Coast Guard also won the St. Mary’s Winter Classic, defeating Baruch 59-50 on Friday.

It’s been a tremendous start of the season for Parent, averaging 27.5 minutes-per-game.

There’s plenty of talented scores on the Bears’ program and Parent’s 10.2 points-per-game is good for fifth place.

Parent also kicks in 2.7 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.3 steals-per-game. 

He’s shooting 53.3-percent from the field, 38-percent from deep and is hitting his free throws at an 89-percent clip.

The sharpshooter has drained 14-of-37 shots from three and missed just one free throw (some say he might have missed two) all season long.

Parent has scored in double figures four times while hitting multiple three-pointers on three occasions.

For his career, Parent has started 25 of 35 games, averaging 22.7 minutes a contest.

Hitting 33.3-percent of his 3-point field goals, Parent has missed just four of his 28 career free throws (85.7-percent) and dished out a total of 60 assists.

He’s scored 247 points over his 1.5 seasons on the collegiate level, averaging 7.1 points-per-game.

The three-point king at BEHS

Over four varsity seasons for the Lancers, Parent drained 133 three-points, tops in program history.

Parent also has the school record for threes made in a game, dropping in seven trifectas against Platt on February 11, 2020.

He also scored a career-high 33 points that evening.

And that same year, the shooter hit a season-record 62 three-pointers as Parent was as talented as any other marksman on the court.

The athlete scored the 13th most points in school history, notching 707 points overall – good for an average of 10.6 points-per-game.

In 67 career games, Parent hit 62-of-74 free throws, good for an 83.8-percent shooting clip.

Shoot (threes) first, ask questions later

Everyone in the Parent family has played basketball at Bristol Eastern which includes father D.J., mother Bevin (Borajkiewicz), son Elijah and daughter Taigan.

While Elijah is tops in the programs in three-point field goals made, D.J. is currently in the top-50 on the boys side.

D.J. has 24 career three-pointers — 109 fewer than Elijah.

Bevin played at a time when Tony Floyd’s girls basketball teams didn’t launch three-pointers like they do today.

She’s all alone in 35th place in 3s made with 10 converted over her varsity stints.

As a junior, her three 3-pointers were tops for the program and one season later, Bevin hit seven more to lead the Kingstreeters over consecutive campaigns.

But Taigan caught fire as a senior marksmen, hitting a single-season program record 60 3s in 2022-23.

She has 84 overall, good for third place all-time, while her seven three-pointers at Platt on January 12, 2023 tied the school record along with Hannah Maghini (112 career threes).

Like brother Elijah, she also scored 33 points that night she tallied seven 3s.

The final numbers

The Parent family dropped in a total of 251 three-point field goals between the four of them.

Overall, the boys and girls programs have combined to hit a total of 4,345 three-pointers.

That means the Parents, as a unit, have hit 5.7-percent of all the three-pointers ever made at Bristol Eastern.

Conclusion…

So, what’s the bottom line here?

When you live by the 3 in the Parent family, you don’t die by it because more often than not, those long shots are reigning down like cash on payday.

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