By Michael Letendre

BRISTOL – If the Southington boys basketball team didn’t know who Jack Stavens was before its contest at Bristol Eastern this past Saturday, the program sure knows him now.

After a very tough outing against Plainville in his previous game, the senior put that effort behind him and was looking for a little redemption against the Knights.

And Stavens, making the start for the Lancers to open the fourth and final period, went into Larry Bird mode – nailing jumper after jumper – as his offense helped Eastern defeat Southington by a 59-49 final from the Thomas M. Monahan gymnasium.

Stavens blasted in 11 points, all coming over fourth quarter play, and when the ball found his hands, each and every shot he launched found nothing but net.

“I felt good going in but it was there,” said Stavens about his offense. “My teammates helped me get open, they set good screens and I just had the space and I just let it fly.”

It was a night-and-day performance for Stavens because the game at Plainville didn’t go the way he planned it.

But Stavens, a model student-athlete at Eastern, stayed poised and ready on the bench against Southington – waiting for his name to be called – and immediately contributed in the program’s biggest win of the campaign.

“The other night [at Plainville], he played two minutes, had two turnovers and shot an airball,” said Eastern coach Bunty Ray of Stavens. “And I told him and the other guys, we’re going to keep going back to you. I’m so proud of him.” 

Stavens went a neat 4-of-4 from the field over a matter of 4:43, scoring a career best 11 points that included three riveting 3s that absolutely devastated any chance of a late Knights’ comeback.

And his offense was critical because Eastern’s 19 point cushion was chopped all the way down to three (38-35) before the senior caught fire at the best possible time.

“I think we just kind of got away from what we wanted to do, kind of in the middle patch of the game,” said Stavens. “But we caught ourselves, we were able to come back and really get back to running our offense and getting the shots we wanted as a team.”

Two straight threes from Stavens made it a 44-35 contest early in the fourth frame and when Southington cut the deficit to four, his number was called upon one more time.

Eastern went on a 9-1 run to basically salt the game away as Stavens connected on another 3 and his final hoop – his only two-pointer of the game – propelled the Kingstreeters to a 53-41 cushion with 2:56 showing on the clock.

“I’m so happy for him because he’s a kid on the bench, doesn’t complain, comes back, responds, and does what he’s supposed to do and carries us to a win,” said Ray. “That’s outstanding…that’s what coaching is all about.”

And Stavens never got lost in the moment.

Even as he ended the contest with a new career high, the most important part was his contribution helped the team win and end a two-game skid – getting Eastern back to the pay window in the process.

“It felt amazing,” said Stavens. “Plainville, obviously, we didn’t do what wanted to do. We didn’t have the outcome we wanted but it was definitely great to comeback and get a nice bounce-back win.”