The Bristol Eastern girls rode a third quarter 20-point blitz to a convincing win over Bristol Central Thursday night, turning a back and forth battle in the first half into a 24-point lead in the second, and ultimately coasting to a 58-43 decision over the Rams.
Vanessa Drury led the Lancers with an 18-point effort, combining several fast break lay-ups with two long range threes. Drury kept Eastern in the game in the closely contested first half, tallying 16 points over the first two quarters.
Autumn Udoh tallied fifteen for Eastern and had her usual big game on the boards with twelve rebounds.
Savannah Drury and Amanda Noel chipped in with 11- and 10-point efforts for the Lancers.
The first three minutes of the game were a hectic jumble of turnovers for both teams, and Eastern coach Tony Floyd called an early time-out to settle his team down.
“I just think both teams were wired at the beginning; everybody was going 110 miles per hour,” said Floyd. “I needed to call a timeout and then we started to settle down.”
The first period ended with an 11-10 Eastern advantage.
The second period saw the Lancers start to build a little edge, but Central parried every Eastern point burst with one of their own.
Arianna Rivera carried the load for the Rams, keeping them within striking distance by scoring 8 of the 10 Central points tallied in the quarter.
The third proved to the decisive quarter as Eastern outscored the Rams 23-7, holding Central scoreless for the first four minutes of the period.
Bristol Central showed the kind of heart coach Steve Gaudet knew they had, pressing the Lancers into numerous turnovers and closing the gap to 11 points with about three minutes left in the contest.
“I like how we finished in the fourth quarter,” Gaudet stated. “But I wish we played four quarters that way. The young kids, my freshmen, Laylani Cespedes and Olivia Lewis, played really hard. I mean, their first big Eastern-Central game, they’re fighting and competing.”
Eastern’s coach was pleased with the effort of his entire team.
“Once we settled down, I thought the kids played really well together,” said Floyd. “We really came out and played good defense. They ran their sets well and they did a great job getting out in transition.”
The Lancers improved to 10-2 with the victory, while the Rams dropped under .500 to a 5-6 mark.
Bristol Central travels to Newington tonight for a 5:30 p.m. game.
Bristol Eastern is at Lewis Mills tonight for a 6 p.m. contest.
Bristol Eastern 58 Bristol Central 43
BRISTOL EASTERN (10-2): Vanessa Drury 7 2 18, Cassie Sward 0 0 0, Leah Roy 0 0 0, Amanda Noel 4 2 10, Lauren Ayotte 2 0 4, Savannah Drury 4 1 11, Autumn Udoh 6 3 15. Totals: 23 8 58.
BRISTOL CENTRAL (5-6): Laylani Cespedes 2 0 5, Olivia Lewis 3 1 7, Leilani Jackson 3 0 6, Molly McMahon 0 0 0, Julia Pikiell 0 0 0, Arianna Rivera 7 0 14, Nicole Riemer 5 1 11. Totals: 20 2 43.
Bristol Eastern: 11 16 23 8 – – – – 58
Bristol Central: 10 10 7 16 – – – 43
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