By Michael Letendre 

Shall we attempt to finish with the story of the 1995-96 Bristol Eastern boys basketball team?

This is supposed to be the final installment of the exciting tale of the Lancers – on their way to winning its second ever CCC South title.

But we’ll need another week thanks to an interruption by the current Bristol Eastern baseball coach.

The Lancers’ squad, at 10-6 during this part of the story, had to battle all the elements in netting a share of that CCC South championship.

And it wasn’t going to be easy,

Already having won six games in a row, Eastern had to battle Shon Jones and New Britain one more time in another classic confrontation on February 13.

The Hurricanes were 9-2 in CCC South play to that point of the season (13-3 overall) while the Lancers were in second place at 8-3.

Eastern never trailed in the showdown against the Hurricanes – leading by 17 over second half play.

The locals came away with huge 63-56 win despite 32 points from the talented Jones. 

Tim Tycz canned five three-pointers (on seven attempts) on his way to 20 points while Dave Giovinazzo nabbed 13 to help the Lancers claim a big victory. 

Story interruption: At the Central/Eastern baseball game this past Thursday evening, Lancers’ coach Steve Gaudet – a member of that championship squad in 1996 – reminded me that he scored “twenty points” as a junior against New Britain with Syracuse men’s basketball coach Jim Boeheim “and someone else” in attendance at the game. 

Let’s get the record straight: Boeheim and “someone else” was there to watch Jones that night, not Gaudet (maybe Gaudet thought his last name was Clingan or something…).

Also, Gaudet scored 17 points (not twenty) as Eastern fell to New Britain, 80-51, and if memory serves correctly, Eastern coach Mike Giovinazzo wasn’t very happy about that 17-point scoring performance by Gaudet in the first place.

Now, can we get back to the real story?

The Lancers then traveled to Southington on February 17 and Eastern drilled the Knights. 

Behind 20 points from Giovinazzo, Eastern easily defeated Southington by a 60-44 final in a Saturday afternoon affair. 

And there was Jon Kozlak again, hitting for 16 points which included three 3-pointers. The 16 points was a career-high for Kozlak.

‘Box-and-none’ expert Jimmy Deschaine (five steals), Keith Viens, and Tycz played excellent defense to keep the Knights at bay. 

Then, Eastern had one final battle against Bristol Central on February 23 with the CCC South title on the line. 

Would Eastern get the win from the Charles C. Marsh Gymnasium?

Would Central (7-11) qualify for the state tournament with a victory over the Lancers? 

And would Gaudet score any points in the game? 

It was yes for the first question and no on the other two.

Eastern won its ninth straight contest, turning away the Rams, 50-45. 

The Lancers led wire-to-wire to claim the victory.

Giovinazzo dropped in 16 points, Kozlak added 10, Paul and Tycz each netted seven, Deschaine pushed in six while Gaudet did not score (what a surprise). 

Central’s Kyle Wilkins led the Rams with 18 points and 10 boards but late free throws by Giovinazzo sealed the deal for Eastern.

The Lancers ended up winning a share of the CCC South title – moving to 13-6 overall and 11-3 in the CCC South.

And now, thanks to the story interruption by Gaudet, we’ll have to wait until the first TBE Sport’s Sunday in June to find out the exciting conclusion of this epic tale.