It was bombs away for Bristol Eastern boys basketball in Monday night’s Bristol Central Holiday Tournament final. The Lancers canned 11 3-pointers in an 85-52 win over Capital Prep.
The Bristol Eastern boys basketball team faced a familiar foe in Monday night’s Bristol Central Holiday Tournament final at the Charles C. Marsh Gymnasium.
The Lancers took on Capital Prep, a team they blew out in the first round of last year’s Division IV state tournament, 80-44.
Monday night proved to be the same song, just a different verse. Eastern led by 23 points at halftime and rolled to an 85-52 win. The Lancers improved to 4-1 on the season. Jordan Chisholm led the way with a team-high 29 points (six 3-pointers) while Zaveyn Tate struck for 15 points. Stone Lowe added 10 points while Naseem Walker, Dante DePass and Jacob Kingsley contributed seven points each. Eastern made 11 3-pointers in the game.
Capital Prep’s Syre Gillespie led all scorers with 33 points, but when the game was still in doubt, Tate helped keep a lid on the talented sophomore. Chisholm unloaded for 13 points in the second quarter alone as Eastern stretched a 13-point first quarter advantage to 23 points, 40-17, by halftime. Tate tallied nine of his points in the first half. While Eastern was piling up the points on offense, its defense stifled Capital Prep. The Lancers forced 16 turnovers, including 12 steals, in the first half, according to a report in The Bristol Edition. Walker and Chisholm proved to be absolute thieves, with Walker turning back-to-back steals into layups in the first quarter. Walker then passed ahead to Tate for a conventional three-point play, and it was quickly 9-2 in favor of Eastern. Tate, Kingsley and Lowe all had five points in the opening eight minutes while Walker added four.
In the second quarter, Chisholm got going. He turned a steal into a layup, then was the recipient of a Tate assist for another layup. Tate came up with an offensive rebound and putback in the lane to make the score 29-12. After Capital Prep came up with a hoop, Chisholm helped Eastern push the game out of reach with an 11-2 run to close the half. Chisholm canned back-to-back 3-pointers, then Tate added a smooth drive and layup for a 37-14 advantage, which brought a Capital Prep timeout. Chisholm scored the last three Lancer points of the half.
Eastern returns to the court after the New Year with a pair of home games, one on Friday against Plainville (6:45 p.m.) and the other Saturday against Watertown (6:30).
