By Michael Letendre
BRISTOL – After a slew of tough Central Connecticut Conference road games, the Bristol Eastern boys basketball team enjoyed a little home cooking on Wednesday night, belting Rocky Hill by a 58-28 final from the Thomas M. Monahan Gymnasium in Bristol.
The Lancers, moving to 4-14 overall, went to the long ball for offense as Ben D’Amato put on another impressive shooting display.
D’Amato re-tied his season-high of 15 points as he drained five three-pointers over a smooth 5-of-9 showing from deep.
Defensively, the Terriers did not have any answers in slowing down the sensational sophomore sharpshooter.
“Offense creates energy. We haven’t been scoring a lot of baskets but Ben lit it up tonight,” said Eastern coach Bunty Ray of D’Amato. “I think that’s what helped us. When he starts shooting from the perimeter, that opens up the inside and all of a sudden, there’s driving lanes. We executed really well tonight against their zone early, got some shots.”
D’Amato also added three rebounds while Brayden Dauphinais flipped in 11 points, and added eight rebounds and four assists.
Nate Fries came off the pine for 10 points, four rebounds, and three assists, Lukas Sward contributed seven points, six rebounds and two assists, and Isaiah Lawrence-Bynum posted two points, five rebounds and a couple steals.
Dante DePass added three points, Jordan Chisholm canned a couple free throws and Zaveyn Tate came off the pine for two points and six rebounds over an impressive eight-minute stint.
Eastern excelled defensively as Rocky Hill (1-17) missed 19 of its first 21 field goal attempts, scoring just seven points over the first 17 minutes of the showdown while the winners forced 15 turnovers overall.
“The name of the game was defense,” said Ray. “We defended really well. We’ve been playing some tough, tough teams. Against Rocky Hill, we were able to be just athletic as a team finally. So we took them out of what they wanted to do and created easy hoops on the other end.”
“There’s been nothing easy for us over the last few weeks. We got some easy baskets and it was good to see us take a breath.”
Yazdan Aftab posted 10 points for the Terriers but hoops by the visiting aggression were few and far between.
Eastern used a 19-2 first period run to break the contest open as D’Amato started the jaunt with two 3s and Jerry Tatum (six points, four assists, three steals) – playing very well over back-to-back games – ended it with a slick lay-up as the Lancers led 21-4 with 30 seconds remaining in the stanza.
“He’s a senior on his way out, playing in his final few games. I think he realizes it and is enjoying himself,” said Ray of Tatum. “He’s playing really hard. When you’re the only senior really playing, you have a bunch of young kids around you and you’re enjoying yourself, that says something. I’m really happy for him that he was able to see some success down the stretch here.”
And in the second period, it was more of the same as Eastern outscored Rocky Hill, 16-2, to square up a sizable 37-7 halftime push.
D’Amato canned two 3s, Fries added a few free throws, Tatum and Sward zipped in lay-ups and when Dauphinais ended the half with one last three-point bomb, Eastern was 30 points better than its opponent.
The Terriers scored seven of the first eight points of the third tilt but the Kingstreeters ended the period on an 7-2 burst with another D’Amato trifecta and more foul shots and a lay-up from Fries making it a 45-16 game with eight minutes to play.
Eastern freely substituted over the final stanza which saw Tate dish off a slick pass for a Dauphinais 3, Tate then hit a hoop, Chisholm dropped in two free throws while DePass added a bucket and a charity shot that made it a 58-22 game with 1:08 remaining.
“Sometimes they get into games and it’s going the other way and the game is kind of out-of-whack,” said Ray of his reserves getting floor time. “It’s nice to see them get into the game and show what they can do. Every game is kind of an audition for next year. When you’re building, you have to find bright lights. That’s what they’re out there for.”
“They’re out there to play hard and show what they can do out there.”
And by the time the dust settled, Eastern came away with a 58-28 victory, it’s largest triumph of the campaign to date with Lewis Mills in town on Friday (6:45 p.m.).
“You want to have something positive down the stretch here,” said Ray. “We’ve been battling. The Watertown game was tough, the Maloney game was tough, and South Windsor on the road was tough. These are games we were right in. So it was nice to play kind of pressure free, get that big lead and play. You’re not grinding out every possession.”
“It was nice to sit there and just watch them play…it was nice for them”
BRISTOL EASTERN BOYS BASKETBALL
BRISTOL EASTERN 58, ROCKY HILL 28
from the Thomas M. Monahan Gymnasium, Bristol
Rocky Hill (1-17) 5 2 9 12 – 28
Bristol Eastern (4-14) 21 16 8 13 – 58
ROCKY HILL (28): Yazdan Aftab 5 0 10, Grant Fishberg 0 3 3, Shir Ghutadarig 1 0 2, Jake Polites 1 2 4, Evan Sikorski 1 0 3, Jayden Vear 1 1 4, Greg Kite 1 0 3. Totals: 10 6 28.
BRISTOL EASTERN (58): Jerry Tatum 3 0 6, Lukas Sward 3 1 7, Dante DePass 1 1 3, Ben D’Amato 5 0 15, Brayden Dauphinais 3 2 11, Nate Fries 2 5 10, Zaveyn Tate 1 0 2, Isaiah Lawrence-Bynum 1 0 2, Jordan Chisholm 0 2 2, Brady Bell 0 0 0, Cheniel Serrano 0 0 0. Totals: 19 11 58.
Three-point goals: Sikorski (RH), Kite (RH), Dauphinais (BE) 3, D’Amato (BE) 5, Fries (BE).
Records: Bristol Eastern 4-14; Rocky Hill 1-17.
