Bristol Eastern boys basketball saw its season come to an end with losses to Bristol Central and Berlin.
The Lancers battled the rival Rams on Monday, but saw a nine-point halftime lead disappear in a 68-62 loss. On Wednesday, Eastern went down 59-41 at Berlin to close the season with a 5-15 record. It was the first season under head coach Bunty Ray, a long-time assistant for Mike Giovinazzo.
Senior transfer Roderick Jenkins led Eastern in both losses. He had 23 points in the Central game, followed by 20 against Berlin. Eastern stat guru and Bristol Observer writer Michael Letendre tweeted that Jenkins averaged 20.1 points per game, along with 6.6 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 3.1 steals. Not bad for his only season in a Lancer uniform.
The Berlin game was also the final one for Eastern seniors Justin Blake, Tom Gonzales, and Jake Violette.
Bristol Central: Monday’s 68-62 home win over Eastern gave the Rams a 10-10 record.
Central missed out on the CCC Tournament, and it has to wait until next Wednesday to find out its seed in Class L. As of now, the Rams are No. 24.
St. Paul: The Falcons were beat up by Crosby in their regular season finale Wednesday, but they still earned the No. 4 seed in the NVL Tournament.
In a bit of irony, St. Paul plays No. 5 Crosby in the third quarterfinal of the day on Saturday at Wilby High School.
GIRLS BASKETBALL
Bristol Eastern and St. Paul learn tournament seeds: The Lancers and Falcons will each take part in the state tournament, and both found out who they play on Wednesday.
Bristol Eastern, the No. 15 seed in Class LL, hosts No. 18 Lyman Hall of Wallingford (Southern Connecticut Conference) next Tuesday at 7 p.m.
St. Paul, the No. 7 seed in Class M, hosts No. 26 Griswold (Eastern Connecticut Conference) also next Tuesday at 7 p.m.
BOYS SWIMMING AND DIVING
The Bristol tri-op (Central, Eastern, St. Paul) dropped its final regular season meet against Middletown on Tuesday at the Dennis Malone Aquatic Center.
Next up for Bristol is the CCC South Blue Division championships. Diving is scheduled for next Thursday at Hartford’s Bulkeley High School. Warm-ups are at 4 p.m., followed by competition at 5 p.m.
For the swim portion of the meet, Bristol returns to Bulkeley next Saturday. Warm-ups are at 11 a.m. with competition beginning at noon.
This is the last Bristol weekly roundup until the spring season. League and state tournaments — including this weekend’s wrestling State Open — will be covered in their own posts.
