By Michael Letendre
When the senior duo of Brayden Dauphinais and Lukas Sward are flowing on both sides of the ball for the Bristol Eastern boys basketball team, the IQ level of the program looks off the charts.
And against Rocky Hill on Tuesday evening, the Dauphinais/Sward combo helped lead the Lancers to victory – generating a 64-38 win in a CCC Interdivisional tilt from the Thomas M. Monahan Gymnasium in Bristol.
The win propelled the Lancers to 6-2 overall while the Terriers, giving it a whirl, fell to 2-5.
Hitting for a combined 33 points, Dauphinais and Sward canned shots early and late, helping the Kingstreeters to an early edge that was never relinquished.
“They are seniors and they were intelligent tonight,” said Eastern coach Bunty Ray of Dauphinais and Sward. “The floor was open and they took what the defense gave them.”
Dauphinais was in attack mode from the start, hitting two first period three-pointers on his way to a season high 17 points along with five rebounds.
Sward made several field goals in a row to start and had a whale of a game. He ended the contest with 16 points, six rebounds, six assists and three steals.
“Early on, I thought we were a little crazy in our offense,” said Ray. “We were just not doing the right things. We were just shooting threes because the other night, they went in. Rocky Hill had some tough matchups out there. We were able to exploit them and Dauph and Luke understood when it was their turn to move the ball and get to the rim.”
“They probably shot high percentages because that’s what they were doing. They were going to the rim.”
The captains of the squad combined to hit 13-of-18 field goals, helping the team shoot 47.2-percent overall for the game.
“I know Dauph hit a couple early threes and then he missed a couple and I said, ‘Dauph, you can score on three levels,’” said Ray. “And Lukas is always a threat when you open up the floor. I’m very pleased with what they did.”
Eastern’s defense did not allow any player from the Terriers to tally double figures in scoring. Jaden Veal and Luke Castantio each plated eight points for Rocky Hill but once the squad got behind by double-figures, it was too big of a hill to climb in the end.
Trailing by three early, the Lancers reeled off a 14-1 run, started and completed by Dauphinais three-point bombs, as the locals led 14-4 with 3:48 to play in the first frame.
To end the first period scoring, Sward canned a free throw and when Ben D’Amato (two assists, two steals), looking a bit like former Utah Jazz great John Stockton at times with some pinpoint passing, found Brady Bell (eight points, 4-of-5 shooting, four rebounds) for a high-percentage bucket, the Lancers led 17-9.
Ahead by five points early in the second stanza, Zaveyn Tate (nine points, eight rebounds, six assists) made a sweet dish to Jordan Chisholm (10 points, three steals) for a blazing baseline 3 and another run was underway.
“He got into foul trouble early being aggressive. He was passing a lot but he should be scoring too,” said Ray of Tate. “A lot of those times, he’s got to learn to mix it up but he’s a very unselfish player and he finds his teammates. He’s just a great basketball player. He goes and gets the ball on offensive rebounds, defensive rebounds, he busts out and it may seem like I’m always talking to him out there and I am.”
“I’m coaching him, coaching him, coaching him but a lot of that is just his instincts and what he’s doing. He’s definitely one of our biggest assets out there.”
The Chisholm three started a 20-4 run to make it a 37-16 contest with 14.9 seconds left before the half.
Eastern made seven of its first nine field goals in the period and off a Sward layup, the third 3 from Dauphinais, an offensive rebound putback by Tate and a Donte DePass charity shot, the home team carried a 19-point edge into the break (37-18).
To open the third period, Naseem Walker (two assists) started the frame and the Lancers were aggressive defensively, pushing the issue, meeting ball-handlers with double-teams and creating additional turnovers (24 overall).
“Every team is different [and] that’s not a great ball handling team,” said Ray of Rocky Hill. “They’re scrappy [and] tough so off of those ball screens, we made a little conscious effort to ice them a little bit, step everybody up, make them make two or three extra plays out of it. If we sat back on those ball screens, we’re allowing them to create offense and that’s not what we wanted them to do.”
“A couple times, we did sit back and they were able to get shots. For a team like that, you’ve got try to make them make difficult shots and they made a couple. They have improved quite a bit and they are going to get better.”
Midway through the third, a lay-up by Tate with 3:23 to go in the quarter made it a 47-25 game before a little Rocky Hill run dented that lead.
A 7-1 jaunt, highlighted by hoops from Casey Robinson (six points) and Veal, saw the Terriers trim the deficit to 48-32 late in the frame.
However, one final Eastern run doomed the visitors to open the fourth as a Chisholm 3 started the push.
Tate hit a high-percentage bucket and then found Bell for a basket to extend the lead.
Bell added another hoop in the paint and Sward canned a leaner and a traditional three-point play to give the Kingstreeters a 61-34 cushion with 3:29 remaining.
And to end the Eastern scoring, Owen Myers hit his first scholastic three-pointer to propel the Lancers to the 26 point triumph.
“We’re 6-2 and we’re really working on still getting better,” said Ray. “Rocky Hill threw a couple things at us that is great situationally [and] we need to see those things. I thought we turned the ball over a little more than I would have liked, being a little bit careless against a team that really wasn’t pressuring us all that much. So we’ve got to go back in getting to our spots, making better passes, and making better reads on defense.”
“But that’s nitpicking. You win by a lot at home [and] you’ve always got to come up with something that you need to improve on but every once in a while, I’ve got to tell myself ‘hey, just enjoy the win and let’s get back to the drawing board.’”
Bristol Eastern Boys Basketball – CCC Interdivisional Battle
BRISTOL EASTERN 64, ROCKY HILL 38
from the Thomas M. Monahan Gymnasium, Bristol
Rocky Hill (2-5) 9 9 14 6 – 38
Bristol Eastern (6-2) 17 20 12 15 – 64
ROCKY HILL (38): Casey Robinson 1 4 6, Jaden Veal 4 0 8, Luke Castanho 2 3 8, Keagan Alexander 0 1 1, Rathan Tejeda 2 0 5, Joey Motes 3 0 6, Grant Fishberg 1 0 2, Alex Kastner 1 0 2. Totals: 14 8 38.
BRISTOL EASTERN (64): Brayden Dauphinais 6 2 17, Jordan Chisholm 4 0 10, Zaveyn Tate 3 3 9, Owen Myers 1 0 3, Lukas Sward 7 2 16, Brady Bell 4 0 8, Dante DePass 0 1 1, Ben D’Amato 0 0 0, Isaiah Lawrence-Bynum 0 0 0, Naseem Walker 0 0 0, Ben Kozikowski 0 0 0, Tyghe Collins 0 0 0. Totals: 25 8 64.
Three-point goals: Luke Castanho (RH), Nathan Tejeda (RH), Brayden Dauphinais (BE) 3, Jordan Chisholm (BE) 2, Owen Myers (BE).
Records: Bristol Eastern 6-2 overall; Rocky Hill 2-5.
All TBE readers, supporters and donors
The Bristol Edition will be limiting the number of stories non-members and free readers may access each week. This decision is based on our financial projections and, most certainly, to remind people that TBE is serious about providing accurate, timely and thorough reporting for Bristol. To do this we have devised a financial support structure that makes unlimited access extremely affordable, beginning with a $6 monthly donation.
- Non-members will be able to access four (4) articles per week.
- Free readers and people who have subscribed by email will be able to access four (4) articles per week.
- Donors and financial supporters will have unlimited access as long as they log in.
Note: Donors may have to contact TBE if they find they are being limited, since we will need to set up a membership account for you. Email editor@bristoledition.org for instructions. Sorry for any inconvenience. People with financial difficulties may write editor@bristoledition.org to be considered for free access.
