By Michael Letendre
BRISTOL – The Bristol Central boys basketball squad will be looking to finish the week undefeated once again, battling East Hartford in a make-up game tonight at 6:45 p.m. on the road.
The Rams, the number one ranked scholastic boys team in the state at 6-0, was scheduled to tangle with the Hornets last Friday but snow forced a postponement.
And now, the clash commences tonight in East Hartford.
Central tangles with a squad on a bit of a roll after the Hornets lost four straight games (3-4 overall).
Beating Middletown on the road (66-61) in its previous game on Monday speaks volumes of what the East Hartford program can bring to the court.
The Hornets are on a two-game winning streak entering play tonight.
Last Central Game
Enjoying a little home cooking, the Rams topped Newington last Monday by a 69-35 final from the Charles C. Marsh Gymnasium in Bristol.
Donovan Clingan roped up a season-high 29 points to go along with 16 rebounds and four blocked shots.
Steve Alseph added a season-high 11 points, Damion Glasper scored 10, Jelani Walton netted five while Victor Rosa tallied four to lead the charge.
Central led 20-6 after one period of play and wrangled up an imposing 42-13 push at the half.
BC scoring Check
Clingan still leads his squad with a 24.5 points-per-game scoring average while Glasper is second at 13.5 ppg.
Carson Rivoira is in third place (7.2 ppg), Alseph chimes in at fourth (6.3 ppg) while Mason Stokes has played in every game to date and adds 4.2 ppg to the till.
Weird Rankings
In the latest GameTimeCT Top10 Boys Basketball Poll (from January 10), first place Central scooped up 17 of 18 first place votes.
Runner up Northwest Catholic (6-1 overall) somehow earned the other vote.
The Lions have won five straight games after a 72-68 loss to Wilbur Cross back on December 18 (if you go to the CIAC website and click onto Northwest’s Boys Basketball schedule, it shows the Lions losing to to Wilbur 772-68!).
Those wins came against Hartford Public, Hall, Glastonbury, Windsor – who also scored a first place vote in the previous poll – and New Britain.
Bristol Central head coach Tim Barrette has mentioned that the team from Northwest could be better than East Catholic.
Currently, NWC is in ninth place in the CIAC Division II standings and could tangle with the Rams in the postseason.
Division II standings
In terms of Central’s current record, not including tonight, the Rams are second in the Division II standings with only Conard of West Hartford (7-0 overall, 19 power points) ahead of the Bristol program.
Central has 17 power points – two behind Conard.
Speaking of Conard, the team moved to 7-0 on Monday with a 106-54 drubbing of Bulkeley last Monday.
Riley Fox dropped in a school record 50 points in the victory which included seven three-pointers.
Conard had 98 points after three completed frames and led by an astonishing 61 points.
But, what goes around…
