By Michael Letendre

BRISTOL – After a tough loss to the number one team in the state on Tuesday, the Bristol Eastern boys basketball had the opportunity to get to the pay window in the consolation game of the Bristol Central Holiday Tournament.

And on Thursday, the Lancers collected – with interest – from start to finish, spinning Wolcott by a 56-38 final from the Charles C. Marsh Gymnasium in Bristol.

The Lancers won for the first time this season (1-3) while the Eagles (0-3) have yet to earn a victory to date.

Eastern’s Nasir Walker-Jenkins blew up for a career-high 27 points, attacking the defense with zest – canning 9-of-15 field goals overall – while adding four rebounds two assists and two steals.

Defense fueled Eastern’s offense as the Lancers forced 18 steals via 20 total turnovers.

Eastern’s zone frustrated Wolcott into mistakes as the locals picked up a huge win despite still missing two starters.

“That wasn’t going to be my defensive game plan today,” said Eastern coach Bunty Ray. “As I talked about it in the pregame, I thought about what we needed to do to create some tempo but to also protect us around the basket. So we talked about playing a little 1-2-2 [defensive zone] two different ways, being able to really pressure the up top and then really sagging down to protect ourselves.”

“And the kids did a really good job for not really having worked on that, so I have to give them all the credit in the world.”

To go along with Walker-Jenkins’ outstanding afternoon, Lukas Sward filled up the stat sheet, nearing a triple-double in the process.

He ramped up nine points, seven rebounds, four assists and six steals over one heck of a scholastic effort.

“He got his hands on a lot of things,” said Ray of Sward. “He facilitated. It’s easy to sit out there and watch Nasir do his thing, but he had to have a lot of help. To be honest with you, we really didn’t play that well offensively. There were a lot of individual things going on out there. Credit Nasir but Lukas was a very good complementary player out there today.”

“He really calmed us down when we needed it because we were playing fast on defense…and we got a little crazy at the beginning of the game.”

Senior Elijah Borgelin had his best game since returning to the Eastern program, boosting a nine point and nine rebound effort with three assists and three steals along the way.

When Borgelin was in attack mode, he overwhelmed a bigger Wolcott program.

“I need him to have nights like that,” said Ray of Borgelin. “He had a big night. He did all the dirty work underneath the basket. He was also able to help us with the ball as an extra ball handler. [Wolcott] had a big match-up problem with their bigs trying to guard him. That helped to create for us well.”

Matt Cole led the Eagles with 12 points which included an impressive second period alley-oop dunk.

After keeping things close early, Wolcott was limited to just 14 points after halftime.

In fact, Eastern’s defense held Wolcott to 29-percent shooting from the field (11-of-38), missing eight of ten three-point field goals along the way.

After Wolcott’s Nick Scanziano banked home a three with 2:19 left to play in the second period, the squad’s next field goal – scored by Karel Tawiah – came with 1:14 remaining in the game.

That’s a stretch of over 15 minutes that the Eagles went without a field goal make.

“Whatever defense we’re in doesn’t really matter. It’s how we went and got the ball today,” said Ray. “We full fronted, we were a lot better against a bigger team getting the ball. We got to loose balls today a little bit and everybody boxed out and rebounded. I thought that was a great defensive effort.”

Isaiah Lawrence-Bynum started for the second consecutive game for Eastern, collecting six points, three rebounds, and two steals while Naseem Walker-Jenkins scored five points, dished out two assists and nabbed two steals.

Nate Fries (two points, three rebounds), Ben D’Amato, and Preston Guarda all played double-figure minutes to help the Eastern cause.

It was a back-and-forth first period as the contest was knotted up at 12-12 with 1:28 to play in the frame.

From there, Walker-Jenkins flashed in a lay-up while Naseem Walker-Jenkins hit one of his own at the buzzer as Eastern led 16-12.

The Lancers never trailed again from that point of the affair.

But Wolcott was pesky over the second stanza, keeping it close off the Scanziano three that chopped the deficit to 25-21.

Nasir Walker-Jenkins then scored the final six Eastern points of the half via a 6-1 push as Eastern’s halftime lead reached 31-22.

Wolcott trimmed the deficit to seven early in the third but Eastern’s offense quickly went into overdrive.

Nasir Walker-Jenkins hit 13 points of Eastern’s third period ending 17-2 run – dropping shots inside and out – and when his final jumper of the period fell through, it was a 48-26 game as Wolcott was down and out.

Walker, Lawrence-Bynum, and Sward canned shots to open the fourth period and with 3:27 showing on the clock, the Lancers established a 55-30 cushion with 3:27 to go.

Cheniel Serrano, Caleb Molinsky, Dante Depass, Jalen Stokes, and Dennis Cruz all mopped up for Eastern in the end as the program rolled out a 58-36 win.

“We didn’t go into the tank [as] we had our best practice of the year the very next day” after the loss to Bristol Central said Ray. “And they came out and won big tonight.”

Eastern looks to make it two in a row as Berlin comes to town on Tuesday at 6:45 p.m. from the Thomas M. Monahan Gymnasium in Bristol.

BRISTOL CENTRAL HOLIDAY TOURNAMENT

BRISTOL EASTERN 58, WOLCOTT 36

from the Charles C. Marsh Gymnasium, Bristol

Wolcott (0-3) 12 10 4 10 – 36

Bristol Eastern (1-3) 16 15 17 10 – 58

WOLCOTT (36): Terrance Stevens 1 6 9, Nick Scanziano 1 0 3, Karel Tawiah 1 1 3, Curtis Winters 0 1 1, Devin Fuezen 2 0 4, Alex Forte 1 0 2, Matt Cole 4 4 12, Teddy Macary 1 0 2. Totals: 11 12 36.

BRISTOL EASTERN (58): Nasir Walker-Jenkins 9 9 29, Elijah Borgelin 3 3 9, Lukas Sward 4 1 9, Ben D’Amato 0 0 0, Nate Fries 1 0 2, Preston Guarda 0 0 0, Isaiah Lawrence-Bynum 3 0 6, Cheniel Serrano 0 0 0, Caleb Molinsky 0 0 0, Dante Depass 0 0 0, Naseem Walker-Jenkins 2 0 5, Jalen Stokes 0 0 0, Dennis Cruz 0 0 0. Totals: 22 13 58.

Three-Point goals: Nick Scanziano (W), Terrance Stevens (W), Naseem Walker-Jenkins (BE).

Records: Bristol Eastern 1-3 overall, Wolcott 0-3