By Michael Letendre
The adventures of the 1995-96 boys basketball squad are coming to an end in the pages of TBE this week.
This story should have concluded last week with part four but Steve Gaudet, one of the players from the CCC South champs, attempted to put some spin out there and the record had to be set straight.
Let’s rewind a bit before finishing this pic tale.
That Lancers’ squad – after a 4-6 start – won nine straight games, and nabbed a share of the CCC South title with a huge win over Bristol Central on the road.
At 13-6 and riding that amazing winning streak, the story can now continue unless coach Gaudet has something else to add (he does not, thank goodness…).
Eastern finished its schedule with a weird regular season-state tournament double-dip against Rockville (a situation that’s happened only one other time in program history).
The last regular season game came on February 26 as Eastern rocked the Indians, 46-45, as Dave Giovinazzo scored 14 and Shawn Paul flipped in 10 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.
Tim Tycz hit the game-winning shot with about a second remaining in the contest. It was the only points Tycz scored that evening.
Eastern finished the season at 14-6 overall – 11-3 in the CCC South – as the Lancers earned a 16th ranking in the Class LL fray and took on 17th ranked Rockville in a first-round game from the Thomas M. Monahan Gymnasium in Bristol on March 5.
It was actually a rubber match between the programs as the teams split its two games during regular season play.
And it was another close one but Eastern beat Rockville by 55-52 final behind 16 points efforts by both Giovinazzo and Tycz.
Giovinazzo hit a huge shot late to close out the Indians
The Lancers won their 11th straight game – moving to 15-6 overall.
The last time Eastern and Rockville met in first round tournament play, the 34th ranked Lancers fell to the No. 31 Indians, 56-52, in a qualifying game back on March 7, 1992.
Current Bristol Eastern assistant baseball coach John Benoit scored a career-high 16 points as the senior played extremely well (John-John nearly scored more points in that game than Gaudet compiled over his entire senior season).
And five days after winning its 11th straight game, Eastern was forced to travel to Norwalk to face the number one team in the state.
The Bears entered its game against the Lancers with a sterling 24-0 ledger and was ranked No. 1 in most Connecticut polls.
Norwalk had a talented player by the name of T.J. Trimboli – a crafty guard who ended up at Southern Connecticut State University, leading the NCAA Division II squad to the Elite Eight as a freshman.
He graduated from the program after scoring 1,805 points and dishing out 410 assists – one of the top totals at SCSU.
Norwalk scored 116 points in its opening round contest against Cheshire, who won a CIAC Class LL qualifying game on March 4 against Bristol Central.
That Cheshire/Central game was a wild four overtime period showdown as the Rams fell, 78-70, from Cheshire high school.
Kyle Wilkins scored 19 for Central, tying the game after the third overtime session, future Bristol Eastern guard Kye Smith added eight while Jeff Papazian (you mean the football guy played hoop?) did not score in the game.
If Central had beaten Cheshire and Norwalk, the Lancers and Rams would have been second round opponents.
However, Central’s four overtime loss to Cheshire derailed those plans.
Norwalk never lost that season and despite Eastern closing a huge deficit to single-digits in the third period, the top ranked team defeated the Lancers, 89-73.
Trimboli dropped 38 points and 10 assists on Eastern as the program ended its season at 15-7.
But the 1995-96 campaign for the Lancers started in one direction, the almost skidded off the rails before the squad figured it out, turned a 4-6 start into a 15-6 ledger before falling in the second round of state tournament play.
And credit belonged to head coach Mike Giovinazzo and the crew of Giovinazzo, Tycz, Paul, Jimmy Deschaine, Jon Kozlak, James Augustine, Keith Viens, Gaudet, Chris Willis, and even Reinaldo Soto as the grouping of players helped make that campaign a very memorable one.
