A trio of teams would garner most of the city’s attention during the 1975-76 season, with Crosby and Holy Cross again battling it out for NVL honors and Kaynor Tech fashioning a 17-0 regular season record before falling to a city opponent in state tournament play.
Kaynor, the city’s technical school, featured a number of returning players from a team that went 16-2 and made the state tournament the previous year, led by seniors Hank Spellman and Bob Kundrotas and junior guard Chris White.
The Panthers had few close contests throughout the campaign before big man Kundrotas broke his hand late in the season. His Kaynor teammates took on more of the scoring and rebounding duties while he was out, and claimed three wins in the final week to finish off the perfect regular season for the first time in school history.
White and Spellman combined for 42 points in a 87-53 rout of Whitney Tech, and White netted 29 in a 75-69 win over Nonnewaug in the final game of the season. Kaynor had control of the game but Nonnewaug rallied to claim a 57-53 lead in the final period. Sophomore Mark Lefky, who scored 53 in three contests in the absence of Kundrotas, sparked a late surge to rally the Panthers, who earned the top seed in the CIAC Class L tournament.
with a layup during a home win for Crosby.
Crosby was selected as the eighth seed in the Class L bracket, after winning 17 of 18 games following an 0-2 start to the season.
The Bulldogs’ season opener, against New Haven’s Lee High, was billed as a contest between two of Connecticut’s top teams and didn’t disappoint. Sly Williams, Lee’s 6-7 center, who would be named an All-American by some publications, scored 31 points to lead the New Haven school to a come-from-behind 76-73 victory.
Crosby had control for most of the game and led 37-29 at halftime, with Steve Johnson netting 16 points. The Bulldogs led until Williams hit a jumper halfway through the fourth period to put Lee up for good. Johnson finished with 29 points and Pete Anton added 16 for Crosby.
The defending NVL champion Bulldogs also dropped their next game, 69-61, to Holy Cross, conceding the early lead in the league race to their city rivals. Senior co-captain Bob Allen scored 23 points for the Crusaders, whose defense limited Crosby’s chances in the impressive road win. Holy Cross junior Clay Johnson registered 13 points and 13 rebounds in the battle against older brother Steve, who scored 15 points for the Bulldogs.
Holy Cross remained the frontrunner for the NVL title throughout the season, and again got the better of Crosby in the return matchup. Clay Johnson registered 26 points and 21 rebounds while Allen also scored 26 in the game that gave Tim McDonald’s Crusaders a two-game lead over Crosby at the top of the NVL standings.
With Pete Shambreskis and Mark Giorgio adding support for Allen and Johnson, Holy Cross finished the NVL season with a 14-0 NVL mark (and 15-4 overall record), earning the school its second league title and a berth in the Class LL tourney.
The Crusaders opened state play against Hartford Public, a team it had split games with during the regular season. The third meeting was a dramatic affair that extended into overtime after Holy Cross rallied from 11 points down in the final minutes to force the extra session.
Shambreskis, who would finish with 14 points, and Duncan Richardson (13 points) led the Crusaders’ late charge, with Richardson’s jumper beating the buzzer to tie the score.
But Public scored the first five points of overtime and held on for a 71-68 victory. Allen’s 16 points and Johnson’s 15 were tops for Holy Cross, which ended its season with a 15-5 record.
In a Class L opener, Crosby’s pressure defense was too much for Waterford to handle in a 90-58 rout. Steve Johnson collected 34 points, nine rebounds and seven assists and Pete Anton, Steve Zaksewicz and Horace “Piggy” Williams also reached double figures in the playdown round win.
In the next round, Johnson notched a career-high 37 points and the 6-5 Zaksewicz added 19 as Crosby rolled past East Catholic, 86-70, to set up a quarterfinal contest against Kaynor Tech. Bob Kundrotas had returned to action in Kaynor’s 52-50 win over Darien, hitting two key hoops late in the Panthers’ first-round victory.
The much-anticipated game between city schools went Crosby’s way, 77-60, with some hot shooting staking the Bulldogs to a 44-31 halftime lead in the game played at Kennedy High. Johnson ended with 28 points, to give him 99 points in three tournament games, while Williams and Zaksewicz contributed 14 each as Crosby claimed its 20th win of the season.
Bob Murphy, who scored 20 points, and Kundrotas sparked a third-period run for Kaynor, whose season ended at 18-1 at the hands of a Bulldog team gaining momentum in the postseason.
But Crosby’s 1975-76 season would end in similar fashion to the previous year’s campaign — in a loss to the same opponent, Warren Harding, on the same exact day of the calendar, March 8. This time it was one round further in the state tournament — the Class L semifinals — at the New Haven Coliseum.
The Bulldogs started well enough on the big stage of the Coliseum, as Bob Brown’s squad claimed a 35-30 advantage at the half. But Harding produced a 12-0 scoring run during the third period to take control.
Harding’s Mike McKay, a 6-4 sophomore, led all scorers with 24 points and future NBA star Wes Matthews tossed in 15 as the Bridgeport school held on for a 69-59 win. Zaksewicz finished with 20 points while Anton and Williams scored 13 each for Crosby.
included (from left) Crosby’s Pete Anton, Bob Allen
of Holy Cross, Sacred Heart’s Ken Kazlauskas,
Clay Johnson of Holy Cross and Steve Johnson of Crosby.
(Republican-American photo)
Steve Johnson, who scored just eight points in the loss, ended his career with 1,494 points to become his school’s and the city’s all-time scoring leader. He was named as a first-team All-State selection for Class L by the New Haven Register, alongside future NBA players Wes Matthews of Warren Harding and Mike Gminski of Masuk (and Bob Dulin of Foran and Al Carfaro of East Haven).
Johnson and teammate Anton were named to the All-City team, joined by Clay Johnson and Bob Allen of Holy Cross and Sacred Heart’s Craig Kazlauskas. Three of that group were honored with the city’s senior awards — Steve Johnson claimed the Billy Finn award as the outstanding senior player in Waterbury, Anton earned the Lt. Jack Cullinan Award as top sportsman, and Allen was honored as the top scholar-athlete with the Doc McInerney Award.
Kaynor Tech’s Chris White and Bob Kundrotas were named second-team All-City selections. Crosby’s Piggy Williams, Kennedy’s George Washington and Bill Ramonas of Wilby joined the Kaynor pair on the second unit.
The brothers Johnson and Allen were named to the all-NVL team along with Frank Russo of Torrington and Bob Stauffer of Naugatuck.