Second in a four-part series on BEHS girls basketball championships under coach Tony Floyd
By Michael Letendre
The Bristol Edition continues to take a special look at the four state titles won by the Bristol Eastern girls basketball team, helmed by head coach Tony Floyd.
And it’s a fitting backdrop as the girls basketball finals that took place this past weekend from Mohegan Sun Arena.
After winning the Class AA title in 1982-83, it took the Lancers a few years to get back to the championship picture once again.
And when the program was able to venture to the state championship game in 1986-87, Eastern was loaded with more than a few future NCAA standouts.
Let’s take a look at the 1986-87 campaign as the girls basketball program from BEHS was on the cusp of something very big that year:
The 1986-1987 season
Since winning its last title, Floyd turned Eastern into a very tough playoff performer — going a combined 47-22 over those three seasons after the Class AA championship performance.
Now in his eighth year as head coach, the Lancers were a sterling 24-1 and absolutely rolled the competition over Class L postseason play.
And the squad from Bristol was stacked.
Senior Laura Lishness would eventually head to the University of Connecticut and was on the team’s first ever Final Four squad in 1991.
Kathy Ferrier joined Lishness at UConn two seasons later, Bernice Laferriere aided Eastern Connecticut State University to a couple Division III Final Four showings while Stacy Mills and Lauren Ferrier helped the Lancers along with guile, ability and effort.
“That was a great team,” said Floyd of the 1986-87 squad. “They were ranked in the country. Credential wise, they had the best of anybody.”
The Lancers were the best team in the state and held a national ranking that extended far past New England.
The squad was just out of the top-10 in terms of national rankings that season.
“We were invited to play out of state down in Pennsylvania but at that time, we were only able to play in New England, New York and that was it,” said Floyd.
Lishness and Ferrier were an amazing one-two punch that earned player of the year and All-State honors.
The bench included co-captain Amy Gagnon, Melissa Simon, Cheryl Kaczmarczyk, Chris Bouchard and Rachel Letizia.
“We had a couple High School All-Americans,” said Floyd. “We had depth on that team, great players on that team.”
Eastern’s only loss came in game four against August Martin from New York on Jan. 3, 1986.
And that game was in doubt until the very end, but Martin snuck out of Bristol with a 54-53 victory, Eastern’s only setback of the year.
Lishness dropped in a game-high 23 points while Kathy Ferrier added 15.
That setback dropped the Lancers to 4-1 but the Kingstreeters won 20 straight games to earn the biggest prize in Class L.
Lishness dumped in 27 in Eastern’s following game as the Lancers zipped up a 66-58 win over Platt on Jan. 5 while the top scorer for the Kingstreeters dumped in 20 points in consecutive victories over St. Paul (62-42) and Bristol Central (63-34).
In a rematch against Platt on February 5, Lishness dropped in 30 points and Kathy Ferrier and Laferriere each tallied 13 as Eastern came away a 64-47 winner in Bristol.
The same Ferrier added 23 points in the Lancers’ 65-39 win at New Britain the next game while Lishness dropped in 31 over a 79-48 smackdown at Bulkeley in mid-February as Eastern moved to 15-1 overall.
On Feb. 19, Laferriere nabbed a team-high 18 points as the Lancers downed Maloney 67-35 and to end the regular season, Eastern defeated Central 49-33 on February 25 – finishing the regular season at 19-1.
Kathy Ferrier nabbed a game-high 22 points, Laferriere dropped in 13 while Lauren Ferrier had seven to pace the winners.
Karin Przygocki dropped in 12 of her team-high 18 points over second half play.
And the madness began in March with No. 27 Wethersfield squaring off against No. 2 Eastern in first round play.
The Ferriers combined for 24 points, with Kathy netting 17 points, as the Eagles fell to the Lancers 57-26 on March 2.
Laferriere notched 15 points while Lishness hit for 10 over the winning jaunt.
In this one, Lishness and Mills did not start for the Lancers due to injury woes as Kaczmarczyk (four points) and Gagnon started in their place.
On March 5, Platt came back to the Mum City, facing an Eastern program that had all its starters back.
Lishness jammed home 30 points and Kathy Ferrier dropped in 22 and 22 rebounds as Eastern was an easy 73-56 winner in Bristol.
Laferriere slipped in 10 points while Lauren Ferrier added eight to seal the win over the Panthers.
The Lancers led 24-9 through eight minutes of action and never looked back.
East Lyme (15-6) was up next, sneaking past St. Paul in the second round by two points (52-50) in a quarterfinal extravaganza on March 7 in Durham.
No. 11 East Lyme gave it a whirl through three quarters, trailing just 48-42, but second ranked Eastern outscored the Vikings 23-17 over fourth period play to snare another double-figure victory (71-59).
It was the closet postseason game the Kingstreeters were involved in that year.
Lyme forced the Lancers to the free throw line 20 times in the fourth period, coming away with 15 points from the charity stripe.
Lishness scored 22 points, Kathy Ferrier added 19, Laferriere had 10 while Lauren Ferrier sank home nine to help the Lancers advance to the semifinals.
That match-up had No. 2 Eastern taking on No. 8 St. Joseph (18-5) from Sheehan High School in a game that never materialized.
Lishness shot 11-of-17 from the field, on her way to 26 points, as Eastern was an easy 74-44 winner.
Kathy Ferrier added 18 points and 13 rebounds, Laferriere scored 17 while Chris Bouchard, Lauren Ferrier, and Mills all added four points to pace the winners.
It was a 27-12 game after one period and 47-20 at the half as the contest was all but over.
And then it was finals time as Eastern battled Notre Dame Fairfield for the Class L crown.
This time around, the finals took place from Kaiser Hall from the gymnasium at Central Connecticut State University on March 14.
And the MVP of the game, who ended up being Lishness, flashed in 23 points, 11 rebounds, eight assists and five steals to help Eastern to its second title behind a he 82-47 blowout.
The score was the second biggest state championship deficit in Connecticut girls scholastic history — a period covering 1974-1986.
Notre Dame fell to 19-5 off the loss.
Kathy Ferrier ended the season with 22 points and 13 rebounds, Laferriere hit for 18 and Lauren Ferrier collected 11 for Eastern’s second-ever state title team.
The Lancers ended the season at 24-1 and turned the Notre Dame game into a no-contest.
“That was probably my strongest team depth wise,” said Floyd.
In the USAToday Super 25 High School Girls Basketball Poll, after the Lancers dismantled Notre Dame, Eastern was the 14th ranked program in all the United States.
That’s a national ranking behind eight undefeated programs, including No. 1 Nashua of New Hampshire — a program Eastern scrimmaged against that season.
Eastern ended up Connecticut’s top-ranked team by the completion of the winter season.
Lishness was named to the All-American Third Team and earned the Gatorade Connecticut State Player of the Year award by Scholastic Coach Magazine and was a Class L All-State First Team pick.
Was there anyone better in the state than Lishness that season?
She averaged 22 points, 8.7 rebounds and 6.0 assists-per-game as a senior and finished her scholastic career with 1,405 points, the most in the city at that time.
Kathy Ferrier nabbed 17 points and 12 rebounds-per-game while Laferriere added 12 points and 4.0 assists as Eastern did it all over the 1986-87 season.
To go along with the 1,405 points Lishness scored at Eastern, Kathy Ferrier added 1,563 by her graduation in 1989.
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