The Bristol Central boys basketball team finished the regular season undefeated at 12-0, but the postseason would bring tremendous challenges.
The Rams earned the No. 4 in the Central Connecticut Conference championship bracket, which was comprised of the top eight teams in the 32-team conference. Central proved it was the best team in that bracket and the conference by winning three straight games to capture its first CCC championship since 2003.
Who was Central’s first opponent? None other than No. 5 Windsor, coached by the legendary Ken Smith. The Rams won that game, 73-59, to advance to the semifinal round. Another coaching legend, John Mirabello, waited with his top-seeded Northwest Catholic team. The Rams won that game, 71-60, to reach the championship bracket final. Central was matched up with second-seeded East Catholic, coached by the very successful Luke Reilly. The Rams saved their most exciting game of the season for last, pulling out a 69-68 overtime victory over the No. 1 team in the state to wrap up the championship. Central ended the season at 15-0 and unsurprisingly was voted the top team in Connecticut in the final state writers’ poll. That’s what happens when you dispatch the No. 1 (East Catholic), No. 2 (NW Catholic) and No. 4 (Windsor) teams in the state in consecutive games (Full disclosure: This writer voted Central No. 1 in his full-time job at the Waterbury Republican-American.)
The most valuable player in the tournament. Why, that would be 7-foot-1 junior superstar Donovan Clingan. The highly-prized Division I recruit scored 108 points and yanked down 79 rebounds in the three CCC tournament games. That’s an average of 36 points and 26.3 rebounds per game. Wow. Clingan put in the game-winning basket against East Catholic off a great entry pass from Victor Rosa in the final seconds of overtime. Those were the final points in a 33-point, 26-rebound effort from the big man.
Central has proven time and again that it is far from a one-man band, and that continued in the postseason. The other players don’t score a lot, but they don’t need to. Instead, they contribute with assists, tough defense and hustle (The Bristol Edition’s Mike Letendre has done a great job pointing this stuff out with his astute observations.)
In the Windsor win, Rivoira was strong on defense against Warrior standout Troy McKoy while Sean Wininger pounded the defensive glass (10 rebounds). In the semifinal win over NW Catholic, the Rams got 10 points from Eli Rodriguez, eight from Wininger and seven from Victor Rosa. In the East Catholic game, Central picked up solid scoring contributions from Rivoira (13 points), Damion Glasper (9), Rosa (6), Wininger (4) and D’Ante Ross (4).
Rodriguez, Ross and Wininger, along with Dominic Amara, Devon Astacio and Nicolas Jones, all got to wrap up their Central careers with an undefeated season and a CCC championship. That’s a pretty good way to go out.
Photo credit: Pete Wininger, principal of Bristol Central and father of Sean Wininger.
