By Michael Letendre

Before the boys scholastic basketball campaign was able to take shape this winter due to the pandemic, TBE was going back in time, looking back at a little hoop history from Mum City days gone by.

There was a story that involved the 1995-96 boys squad from Bristol Eastern – a program that was either on the verge of a complete collapse for the second consecutive season or an amazing turnaround that would have propelled the squad to state tournament play for a multi-game run.

Well, by popular demand, part two of the story will now be told in what has been christened TBE Sports Sunday.

Do you remember some of the events in part one of the Bristol Eastern story?

*The Eastern team was coming off a miserable 4-16 campaign in 1994-95. And from a promising 3-0 start, things quickly tanked – thanks in part to Jimmy Deschaine’s box-and-one fiasco in that miserable 54-50 loss at Plainville (you heard me, Jimmy!).

*Then head coach Mike Giovinazzo was forced to use a starting line-up of sophomores and a future Green Beret (John Phelan) against Vinal Tech because the varsity squad wasn’t prepared to compete (think of the term ‘tomfoolery’ and you’ll get it).

*Current Bristol Eastern varsity baseball coach Steven Gaudet had only scored seven more points than the Lancers’ basketball statistician to that point of the season (I did not include that ‘point’ in part one of the story). That says it all right there.

*After getting to 2-3, the Lancers dropped games to Maloney (65-44) and Bulkeley (69-64) to start the New Year (I told the team to sign Jeff Dickau to a 10-day contract, but I was laughed out of the gym). 

So, with that prelude, let’s continue the story as Eastern had a home game against Platt on January 11 – a contest that would have really put the squad behind the eight-ball in terms of state tournament aspirations.

And this game needed overtime as the squads were still neck and neck in the first OT session with the Panthers leading by one late.

Dave Giovinazzo, who drove through just about every Platt player to get to the hoop, missed but Shawn Paul dumped the ball in off an amazing offensive rebound put-back at the buzzer as the Lancers came away with a huge 71-70 win.

Giovinazzo led the way with 22 points, Shawn Paul added 21 and wily veteran Jon Kozlak canned 13 points – tallying a season-high tying three 3-pointers (sling ‘em in there, Jon!). 

From that contest on, Giovinazzo was the leading or co-leading scorer for the program in nine of Eastern’s final 15 games.

Two days later, the Lancers squared off against Newington from the Thomas M .Monahan Gymnasium and off a 20-point scoring effort by Deschaine, Eastern came away 60-49 victors.

Giovinazzo added 11, Tim Tycz had 10, Paul picked up nine while big man James Augustine provided eight points.

However, the winning streak wouldn’t last.

The Lancers traveled to New Britain to square off against senior Shon Jones and New Britain high school.

Jones was an amazing scoring machine and entered the contest versus Eastern needing just 10 points to notch his 1,000th.

Well, Jones dropped in 44 points and grabbed 11 rebounds as the Hurricanes won by an 85-62 final over a blowout.

The senior forward was averaging 36.5 points-per-game for New Britain (8-1) as Jones was the leading scorer in the state.

To end the third period, Jones was pinned at half court by Paul and Gaudet in front of the scorer’s table with Coach Giovinazzo looking on.

Jones turned, fired and canned a half court 3 at the buzzer as the Hurricanes were up big (Coach G. always said he was so close to Jones when he shot the ball, he easily could have blocked the attempt).

Paul led the Lancers with 22 points, Giovinazzo netted 13, and Deschaine put in nine.

Eastern fell to 4-6 at the halfway mark of the season as the program was at a crossroads once again.

Would the Bristol Eastern boys basketball team continue this ridiculous up and down play, driving Coach Giovinazzo a bit crazy in the process?

Could the Lancers make a run to capture its second CCC South title over the last three years?

Would Gaudet score more than 20 total points that season (spoiler alert, he did score more than 20 – by about two)?

Again, these are riveting questions that must have an answer.

And those answers will come next week in TBE’s Sports Sunday.