BY CHRIS LaCLAIR
Eagle Times Sports Editor
SUNAPEE, NH — If Hinsdale’s Brayden Eastman was a video game character in the iconic NBA Jam video game of the ’90s, you would hear, “He’s on fire!”
Eastman came into the game needing 52 points to reach the 1,000 celebratory mark for his high school career. If the game wasn’t out of reach before he sat on the bench for the entire fourth quarter, he may have well entered the 1,000 point club.
He scored 32 points on Friday night including 8 three pointers en route to a season opening 71-42 win against the Sunapee Lakers on the road.
“When I came into the game and missed the first couple of shots, I wasn’t sure this was going to be a night at all,” said Eastman. “But once I hit the first one, my confidence got up there and I was more confident in myself and my teammates, as well, as they were setting me up to get me more opportunities.”
Sunapee started off the scoring for their only lead of the game when Dylan Smith made a layup for the 2-0 lead. A lot of Laker turnovers and fouls on baskets made things easier for the Pacers to control the tempo of the game. Eastman scored a few easy layups to get him into a rhythm. The Lakers found themselves down 15-6 at the end of the first quarter.
“I tried to tell the kids it comes down to turnovers,” said Tim Puchtler, Sunapee head coach. “When you have 30-plus turnovers a game, that’s a 60-possession swing, it’s 30 extra chances they get and 30 less chances you get; you just can’t win a game that way.”
Eastman hit five more 3-pointers in the second quarter to start a 27-8 run that quickly put the game out of reach. Connor Dixon and Hunter Dingman hit 3’s of their own as Hinsdale connected on seven 3’s in the quarter. Sunapee’s Brock Kangas scored 4 points of his own in the quarter to try to give his team a spark. Eben Barube and Mike Seymour also had baskets for the Lakers as they found themselves down 42-14 at the half.
The second half started with an ankle breaker from Eastman as he dropped a Sunapee defender with a crossover move as he scored in the paint. He scored on the next possession with another 3-pointer as he shook his head in disbelief.
Sam Gaudet would match his 3 to get excitement from the Sunapee crowd. Eastman would hit another 3 and followed it up with an offensive rebound that he put back in for the score. Kangas would drill a 3 as Sunapee didn’t back down.
The fourth quarter started with Sunapee behind 68-25 and in control of the game. The Pacers sat their starting lineup which gave Sunapee a chance to run their offense with less pressure. Kangas and Seymour would orchestrate a 11-0 run to generate a buzz in the gym as they each scored 8 points in the final quarter.
Even with the positive quarter, neither Seymour nor Coach Puchtler were happy with the performance as it was against the Pacers bench instead of their best five.
“It was just such a messy game all around for us. I was able to score those points, but it was against players who don’t get that much playing time,” said Seymour. “Our goal is to get better as a team.”
“Like I said to them, it was nice to get that run at the end, at the same sense, you have to be realistic about the situation,” Puchtler said. “Hinsdale didn’t have their best five on the court. It allowed us to work a little bit better with less pressure but in the same sense, don’t get too excited about it. Understand the situation and be in the zone of reality, they were still sloppy even at that point.”
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