By Michael Letendre

MIDDLETOWN – The Bristol Eastern girls basketball team could not keep up with an aggressive Middletown squad on Tuesday, falling by a 66-48 final on the road in a CCC South confrontation.

The Blue Dragons (8-2) reached the halfway point of the season while the Lancers (3-4) fell a game under .500 after previously winning three of their last four games.

Middletown’s Tyah Pettaway notched most of her game-high 26 points over the first and third quarters of play.

The outstanding athlete dropped 11 points in the first frame and added ten in the third to keep Eastern at bay.

Shalyn Smith netted 14 points while Shadae Bushay scored 12 for the home team over a very balanced attack.

Eastern’s All-Stater Ciara Collins collected her first ever 20-20 game and it was an impressive showing against an outstanding Middletown defense.

She dropped in 25 points, a career-high 21 rebounds and added five assists and five steals over one heck of an effort.

Vanessa Drury also had a career day, looking more and more comfortable on the court by the game.

She canned 11 points, her career-high, while scooping up two assists and two steals – hitting 5-of-9 field goals overall.

Taigan Parent zipped up eight points – two of her hoops were three-point bombs – to go along with six rebounds and five assists, Janessa Gonzalez wrangled up four points, seven rebounds and rejected three shots while Lauren Ayotte contributed a half-dozen rebounds off the pine.

Emily Piendak, Madison Charette, Leah Roy and Gracie LaMar all saw action for the Lancers that evening.

It wasn’t all one-sided that night as Eastern made a game of it in the second stanza – chopping a double-figure first period deficit to nine points at the half.

The locals stayed in it early in the third tilt but Middletown drained 10 of its first 16 field goals to etch up a 24-point cushion, never looking back.

The Blue Dragons used its full-court pressing tactics to force miscues and turnovers early but two free throws by Gonzalez chopped the deficit to 8-2 midway through the first frame.

But the home team ended the quarter with a 14-8 burst as Middletown led 22-10 through eight minutes of play.

Collins and Drury each canned six points over a 19-point second period attack and at the half, Eastern was in it – trailing 38-29.

It was still a single-digit affair early in the third tilt but Eastern was outscored 24-9 and trailed 62-38 through three completed frames – falling by 18 in the end.

If the schedule holds, Eastern is slated to play Conard today at Bristol Eastern (6:45 p.m.) while the Lancers battle Bristol Central – from the Charles C. Marsh Gymnasium – on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. in the first match-up between the programs this year.

BRISTOL EASTERN GIRLS BASKETBALL

MIDDLETOWN 66, BRISTOL EASTERN 48

from Middletown high school

Bristol Eastern (3-4)             10 19 9 10 – 48

Middletown: (8-2)                 22 16 24 4 – 66

BRISTOL EASTERN (48):  Taigan Parent 3 0 8, Vanessa Drury 5 1 11, Emily Piendak 0 0 0, Ciara Collins 10 3 25,  Madison Charette 0 0 0,  Leah Roy 0 0 0, Janessa Gonzalez 0 4 4, Lauren Ayotte 0 0 0, Gracie LaMar 0 0 0.  Totals: 18 8 48.

MIDDLETOWN (66):  Shalyn Smith 6 1 14, Jada Bryant 1 0 2, Alena Desena 3 1 8, Tyah Pettaway 11 2 26, Kaila Torres 1 0 2, Tajahnae Brock 1 0 2, Shadae Bushay 4 3 12. Totals: 27 7 66.

Three-point Goals: Parent (BE) 2, Collins (BE) 2, Smith (M), Desena (M), Pettaway (M) 2, Bushay (M).
Records: Middletown 8-2 overall; Bristol Eastern 3-4