The Bristol Eastern girls basketball team is the No. 15 seed in the 16-team CCC Tournament. As a result, it will play at second-seeded Newington this evening at 6 o’clock in the first round of the tournament.
It’s the second straight year that the Lancers and Nor’easters have met in the CCC postseason. The teams played in the first round of the championship bracket last year, a game No. 1 Newington won, 55-35, over No. 8 Eastern.
This season, the Lancers finished 8-8 in CCC play while the Nor’easters were 14-1, with their only loss coming at East Hartford, 52-37, on Jan. 28. Eastern and Newington met during the regular season, a game the Nor’easters won, 55-41, on Feb. 5 in Newington.
The Lancers are won their last CCC game of the regular season, 63-51, over Bristol Central, and they were able to avenge a loss to the Rams earlier in the season. In that win over Central, Eastern senior Ciara Collins had a game-high 22 points while junior Taigan Parent added 16 points. Senior Janessa Gonzalez tallied 11 points while sophomores Emma Stavens and Vanessa Drury added five points apiece. Brooke Watson had 20 points and Arianna Rivera added 15 points for Central.
Eastern won CCC games against Berlin (2), East Catholic, Platt, Hall, Lewis Mills, Plainville and Central. The winner of the Eastern-Newington CCC Tournament game will play the winner of No. 7 E.O. Smith and No. 10 RHAM-Hebron in the quarterfinal round on Saturday at Enfield High School.
