By Michael Letendre

MIDDLETOWN – Senior night for the Middletown boys basketball team was a successful evening for the program although Bristol Eastern attempted to flip the script a bit on Monday.

The Lancers trailed by just single digits late into the first half but the Blue Dragons zipped up a 9-0 run to start the third tilt, eventually making it a 24-point game before setting on a 67-51 victory in a CCC South bout from Middletown high school.

Middletown moved to 10-4 overall while Eastern fell to 3-11.

With a bit of a different starting line-up, the Lancers did a quality job of getting shooters the ball but when those attempts didn’t fall, the Blue Dragons – hitting nearly 58-percent of their hoops from the field – and made the Kingstreeters pay on the offensive end.

“Early on, it was tough to get shots,” said Eastern coach Bunty Ray. “More often, it was hard to stop them. They are physical inside and got easy baskets. As the game wore on, we started making a couple [hoops], kept it interesting. I thought we played pretty well to be honest with you. I thought we did a great job of keeping it close so to speak. Middletown was shuffling guys in and out.”

Eastern’s Brayden Dauphinais played well, hitting 5-of-10 field goals for 13 points to go along with seven rebounds – both team highs.

Ben D’Amato was in the starting line-up again and supplied 13 points, hitting 5-of-7 buckets overall and nailed three shots from downtown.

Nate Fries scooped in nine points, three assists and two steals while Lukas Sward made an impact over second period play, dishing out four assists and helping Eastern outscore Middletown in that frame, 19-18.  

“I have to give credit to Lukas because he was under duress all night,” said Ray of Sward. “Other guys had to step up. I thought Nate Fries had a pretty good game.”

Dante DePass added a season-high five points to go along with three rebounds, Isaiah Lawrence-Bynum nabbed four points and four rebounds, Jordan Chisholm hit two free throws, Brady Bell cashed in on an offensive rebound for his first ever varsity hoop while Jerry Tatum, Zaveyan Tate, Cheniel Serrano, Xavier Kalanquin, and Caleb Molinsky all saw floor time for the Lancers.

“I put in five or six freshmen today,” said Ray. “I played a bunch of sophomores and bunch of freshmen. [Because of that] you’re going to get some freshmen and sophomore mistakes.”

Elijah Wilborn scored a game-high 14 points while Tim Vaughters nabbed 12 for the home squad.

The Blue Dragons raced out to a 9-0 lead to start things before Eastern’s offense slowly heated up.

D’Amato canned a floater and Fries hit a 3 over the first eight minutes of play as the visitors trailed 17-5 through one frame.

Off a Wilborn dunk with 5:50 to go in the half, Eastern used a 9-3 run to get into contention as D’Amato scored five straight points, Tate added a free throw and when Sward found Dauphinais for his second 3 of the stanza, the Lancers trailed just 27-18 halfway through the second period.

D’Amato and Fries canned trifectas to end the first half and going into the break, the Lancers were down 35-24 but hanging around.

Middletown got some breathing room to start the third tilt via that 9-0 spurt and when Chace Petgrave (10 points) canned a three with 5:28 left in the period, the home team led by twenty at 44-24.

“Defensively, we’ve got to learn how to play at this level,” said Ray. “I think that’s where it’s going to be the hardest at this level, to go out there and understand position defense when you’re a young kid. I think that’s what really got us in trouble on the drive. We gave them some easy looks that we need to work on. We need to be able to seal those off and rebound.”

“That’s something that we just have to continue to do practice.”

DePass and Lawrence-Bynum kicked in shots to end the third but Eastern was behind on the scoreboard by a 55-31 push with one frame to go.

The Lancers never gave in, ending the showdown with a 15-4 burst and to end the game, Bell kicked in a hoop, Serrano found DePass for one last bucket and when Dauphinais ended things with an and-1, Eastern fell by 67-51 but played a spirited thirty-two minutes of ball.

“You look back to the Bloomfield game and then look back to this one, minus a couple ball-handlers, I think we were doing pretty good,” said Ray. “Those aren’t easy games. But we came in here and I thought we worked extremely hard.”

BRISTOL EASTERN BOYS BASKETBALL

MIDDLETOWN 67, BRISTOL EASTERN 51

from Middletown high school

Bristol Eastern (3-11)           5 19 7 20 – 51

Middletown (10-4)                 17 18 20 12 – 67

MIDDLETOWN (67): Chace Petgrave 4 0 10, Matt Steuerwald 1 0 2, Tim Vaughters 5 1 12, Elijah Wilborn 7 0 14, Quadir Murphy 1 0 2, Marshal Butler 1 0 2, Caiden Byrd 1 0 2, Adison Brown 1 0 2, Dariyon Drake 4 2 10, Teejay Jackson 2 0 4, Nasir McDaniel 3 1 7. Totals: 30 4 67.

BRISTOL EASTERN (51): Lukas Sward 0 1 1, Jerry Tatum 0 1 1, Ben D’Amato 5 1 13, Brayden Dauphinais 5 1 13, Nate Fries 3 1 9, Isaiah Lawrence-Bynum 2 0 4, Dante DePass 2 1 5, Jordan Chisholm 0 2 2, Zaveyan Tate 0 1 1, Brady Bell 1 0 2, Cheniel Serrano 0 0 0, Xavier Kalanquin 0 0 0, Caleb Molinsky 0 0 0. Totals: 18 8 51.

Three-Point goals: Brayden Dauphinais (BE) 2, Ben D’Amato (BE) 3, Nate Fries (BE) 2, Chace Petgrave (M) 2, Tim Vaughters (M), Nasir McDaniel (M).

Records: Middletown 10-4 overall; Bristol Eastern 3-11