Eastern girls a winner on the hardwood one more time against Central

By Michael Letendre

BRISTOL – The Bristol Eastern girls basketball team picked up another victory against Bristol Central on Friday night, winning the game by a 69-37 final.

A quick game summary was posted in TBE but here are some notes from the city series showdown at Bristol Central:

*For the second straight game, Eastern shot the ball extremely well.

Against Central, the Lancers hit 25-of-55 field goals for a 45.5-shooting clip. 

Along those lines, Eastern flipped in 9-of-19 shots from 3-point land and out-rebounded the home squad, 47-30.

*Central did extremely well in taking care of the ball, committing just 10 total turnovers.

Those numbers are typically higher in a city series showdown game but the Rams kept Eastern from making it and up-and-down affair via fewer miscues on the court.

Eastern is excellent in the transition, up-tempo game it loves to play.

*Eastern junior Ciara Collins is trying to score her 1,000th point in this shortened season. And if everything falls into place, she has the chance to accomplish that amazing feat.

Against the Rams, Collins had a double-double before the halftime break.

She tallied 20 points and 11 rebounds at the half – finishing the game with 29 points, 14 rebounds, and six assists as Collins flirted with a triple-double.

*Ella and Brooke Watson led the charge for the Rams with 17 combined points. Ella zipped in a team-high 10 points while Brooke posted seven.

Scoring against Eastern in a city series bout is never an easy thing.

*Four total players from Eastern scored 10 or more points against Central.

Along with Collins, Sage Scarritt canned a 3 on her way to 12 points, 12 rebounds, two assists and two blocks over an excellent complete game effort.

Cali Doyon netted 10 points and two assists while Alyssa Kehler added 10 points and seven rebounds to the winning effort.

*Central’s Janessa Bartell is a hustler, zipping up eight points and played very good defense against all those Eastern bigs while Arianna Rivera scored seven to help the Rams’ cause.

*Taigan Parent (two points, five rebounds, three assists) made good contributions over her second consecutive start for Eastern while Emma Stavens, Audrey Tice and Vanessa Drury – all three in their freshmen campaign – each notched a hoop for the Lancers.

*Midway through the second stanza, Central trimmed Eastern’s edge to 10 points (26-16) before the Kingstreeters settled on a 33-18 edge at the half.

From there, the Lancers scored 19 straight points to open the third quarter to wrangle up a 52-18 cushion with just under three minutes left in the period.

*The last time Central defeated Eastern was back on February 16, 2004 as the Rams were 60-57 winners.

The Lancers have won every showdown since, a streak that started in 2005.

*This week, Tuesday’s upcoming games have been moved to Wednesday with Central hitting the road to take on Southington (1-1) while Eastern makes it home debut against Plainville (2-0).