By Michael Letendre

People forget that Ryan Howse, the former Bristol Central standout in boys hoop, was a tremendous athlete on the hardwood.

From 1991-1994, Howse led the Rams’ boys basketball program to several big victories and had one heck of a senior campaign.

Speaking of big, that was Howse – 6-foot-8, 230 pounds of talent who caught the eye of the University of Hartford (when they were a NCAA Division I program).

As a senior in 1993-94, there weren’t many players in the state better than Howse.

He entered the 1994 Class L postseason as the leading scorer in the state, posting amazing averages of 26.1 points and just under a shade of 20.0 rebounds-per-game.

Howse was a handful, helped his squad to a 15-6 record as a senior and by the completion of the regular season, Central was ranked just outside the top-10 in the state.

Howse earned All-State status in Class L as a senior while his buddy on King Street, Todd Ziogas (Pace University), earned the same award in Class LL.

But it was Howse’s game back on February 22, 1994 that turned heads.

It was the night Howse established a new single-game scoring record at BC, notching 45 points – to go along with 25 rebounds – as Central topped Platt by a 60-49 final in Bristol.

Howse absolutely crushed it, hitting 15 fields and 15 free throws for his 45 points.

In fact, no one from that Central team hit a 3 that night as the squad posted 19 field goals and 22 charity tosses to get to its sixty points.

And Platt was a solid team, falling to 14-5 overall in the losing effort.

That loss also helped Eastern eventually snare a share of the CCC South Championship along with Platt at 11-3. 

Howse was quite a basketball specimen, able to put the ball in the hoop in just about every way possible.

Locally, Howse was head-and-shoulders above all the players in Bristol in the scoring department.

As the state tournament approached, Howse (26.0 ppg) was averaging over six points more than St. Paul’s Sean O’Brien (19.9 ppg) and Ziogas (19.2 ppg).

Howse teamed up with the likes of then-junior Billy Ogonowski – a former Bristol Eastern player that saw time as a freshman on the varsity level – and were looking for a big postseason run.

That run came to a premature end in the Class L first round when No. 27 Kennedy upset No. 6 Central by a 70-64 final in two overtimes.

Howse led all players with 29 points as the Eagles snuck into tournament play at 8-12 overall, eventually making it to the quarterfinal round.

The Rams played two epic games against the Lancers in 1994, the first being a memorable two overtime war back on February 1.

Ziogas powered Eastern with 28 points – one of his career-high – as Eastern snuck past Central, 68-63.

Howse was tremendous, hitting for 39 points and 29 rebounds that night.

Twenty-four days later, Central got its revenge behind a 61-55 come-from-behind victory.

In that one, Howse busted the Lancers for 29 points and 15 rebounds while freshman Kye Smith hit a lay-up at the third quarter buzzer which helped trim down the deficit to single digits and helped lead to Eastern’s downfall in the game.

After Central, Howse played well for Hartford (1994-1998), scoring 1,221 points over his four seasons as his squads won an average of 16 games over his final two collegiate seasons.