Waterbury sports fans were treated to another thrilling high school basketball season in 1987-88, which featured a one-game playoff between two city teams for the Naugatuck Valley League title and a first-ever state title for one of those schools.
Taking advantage of the three-point shot – instituted for CIAC games one year earlier – three different players topped the single-game individual scoring record set in 1961 by the legendary Billy Finn. And the season marked the end of an era for both a player and coach who would go down as legends in city lore.
Wilby returned the league’s top scorer in 6-4 All-State swingman Phil Lott from a team that reached the Class M semifinals. Cousin Keith Lott, a 6-1 junior, was also back, but Reggie O’Brien’s Wildcats had lost three starters to graduation that included 1987 Billy Finn Award winner Kevin Eason.
Defending champion Crosby, which had topped Wilby in overtime in the final game of the regular season to claim the previous year’s NVL crown, also had to replace some key starters – but featured a strong front line in 6-6 Curt Steward, 6-5 Mark Ward and Mike Marshall.
The two public schools were among the main contenders in 1987-88, along with a deep, experienced Holy Cross team aiming for a first league title since 1981. The Crusaders had gone 10-10 the previous year, but returned nearly their full squad led by seniors LaMarr “Dewey” Stinson, Doug Leichner and Tony Santos.
The 6-3 Stinson announced before the season that he had signed to play college basketball at Fordham University. Another pre-season announcement came out of Holy Cross, with long-time coach Tim McDonald deciding the season would be his last at the helm of the Crusader program.
Aiming to send McDonald off with a successful season, Holy Cross started its league campaign well with wins over both main rivals. The 6-7 Leichner scored 32 points and Stinson added 25 to lead the Crusaders past Wilby, 78-71, in double overtime on January 5th at The Pit.
The victory earned Holy Cross the early lead in the NVL standings. And with senior Dyran Henderson and junior guard Wesley Oates emerging as key contributors as the season wore on, McDonald’s squad maintained the slim margin at the top.
for two of the 2,230 points of his high school career.
Wilby kept pace behind Phil Lott, who would seemingly set another city scoring record each time he stepped on the floor during the 1987-88 season. The University of Hawaii-bound forward surpassed the 50-point mark twice in the Wildcats’ first four games – first tying the modern-day city single-game record with 52 points against Kaynor Tech and then scorching the nets for 59 points, including nine three-pointers, in a rout of Sacred Heart.
Averaging 34 points a game on the season, Lott would go on to break the single-season scoring total set by Spencer Harrison of Holy Cross in 1979.
With Keith Jordan and Brandon Sumler settling in to the guard spots in Wilby’s lineup and Dwayne Ellis adding a boost off the bench, the Wildcats gained steam with a series of wins leading up to the rematch with Holy Cross.
In that Feb. 5th encounter, host Wilby claimed an early lead and then held off a Holy Cross rally to pull away for an 83-73 victory. Keith Lott played a strong game with 21 points and 14 rebounds, and cousin Phil scored 29 as the Wildcats evened things at the top of the NVL standings. Stinson matched Lott’s 29 points and Oates hit for 25 in the Crusaders’ first loss in the league.
The result left the two teams tied at the top of the league standings, with a handful of games remaining to determine an NVL champion.
Holy Cross responded by routing Crosby, 85-58, in one its best performances of the season. Stinson’s 23 points led four double-figure scorers in the Crusaders’ home win, while junior Wayne Boyette netted 24 points for Crosby – one game after he poured in 59 in a 109-85 win over Sacred Heart.
Lott outdid Boyette by one point in Wilby’s 107-80 home win over Kennedy, a game where he became the first player in city history to surpass 2,000 points in his career. The Wildcats sprinted to a 25-point lead by halftime, turning the contest into a shootout with Lott aiming for the record books. The 6-3 senior hit 23 field goals on the way to his 60 points, setting the modern-day single-game scoring mark and becoming just the seventh player in state history to reach 2,000 points in a scholastic career.
With the final night of the regular season requiring both Wilby and Holy Cross to win to set up a one-game playoff for the NVL title, the Crusaders had the easier assignment. Tim McDonald’s squad had the upper hand from the opening tip against Sacred Heart and cruised to a 104-86 victory. Dewey Stinson – who in pre-game ceremonies was awarded the Lt. Jack Cullinan Award for sportsmanship among city seniors – scored 34 points and Wes Oates added 23 for Holy Cross, which finished the regular season with a 17-3 record (17-1 in the NVL).
Wilby had a tougher task in its traditional season-ender against Crosby, and the dramatic back-and-forth battle went down to the final seconds. The Bulldogs went into the final period with the lead and were up by two points with a minute remaining.
Phil Lott, who had an off shooting night, then hit his only three pointer to put Wilby up 79-78. After Crosby’s Wayne Boyette hit one of two free throws tie the game, the ball was back in Wilby’s possession with time running down. With most in the crowd expecting Lott to take the deciding shot, the 6-4 senior found Dwayne Ellis in the lane for a layup with seven seconds remaining for the game’s final points.
Boyette, who equalled Lott’s 33 point-effort on the night, got off a shot at the buzzer but could not connect, giving Wilby the victory and setting up the playoff showdown with Holy Cross for the league crown.
Holy Cross’ 50-37 victory in the Class LL semifinal.
Click here to read Stinson’s recollections of
the title season and his high school
and college careers.
In that title decider played at Crosby High, the Crusaders used a 29-9 first-half run to take command by the intermission. But Phil and Keith Lott led a Wilby surge that cut the lead to three points midway through the fourth period.
With the game and the NVL title in the balance, Holy Cross’ Stinson stepped up with six straight points – including a thunderous dunk on a fast break – to build the lead to 75-66 with two minutes remaining and essentially seal the victory.
The Fordham-bound Stinson finished with 27 points while Leichner scored 22, converting five of seven free throws in the final period, in the 85-77 win. Phil Lott had a game-high 36 points for Wilby, which lost the title decider for a second season in a row after capturing the NVL crown in 1985-86.
Despite the loss, the 19-2 Wildcats were ranked second in the Class L tournament, and first in the West Region of the bracket, as one of three city teams (along with Kennedy and Sacred Heart) in that division.
The Hearts, the 11th seed, held their own against Bassick of Bridgeport in the first half of an opening-round contest, before falling 90-80 to the sixth-seeded Lions. Brian Murphy collected 18 points and 10 rebounds for Sacred Heart alongside three other senior classmates – Darren Evans, Derreck Pruden and Steve Hebb – who all hit double figures in the last games of their scholastic careers for the Hearts, who finished 10-11.
Kennedy also lost in the first round, dropping a 41-40 decision to a taller Seymour side. Al Gonzalez and LaMarr Powell had ten points apiece for the Eagles, who ended the season with a 12-9 record.
That result kept two city teams from playing in the second round, as Wilby awaited the victor. But Seymour was no match for Phil Lott and the Wildcats in a game played at Naugatuck High. Wilby scored 37 points in the third period en route to a 102-65 second-round win, with Lott notching 26 points to break the city’s single-season scoring record of 798 points (that was set in 1979 by Spencer Harrison of Holy Cross).
Two nights after setting that mark, Phil Lott’s scholastic career would come to an end when Wilby fell to 10th-seeded St. Bernard in the Class L quarterfinals.
The Wildcats struggled throughout, and were behind by ten points on two occasions before battling back to take a four-point lead with a minute remaining. But the Saints’ defense forced a couple of turnovers and Will Flowers made some key buckets in the closing minute to complete the upset over Wilby.
Lott scored 21 – to end his career with 2,230 points, third most in state history at the time – while Keith Jordan and Keith Lott also reached double figures in the loss as Wilby finished the season with a 21-3 record.
That left Holy Cross as the lone city team remaining in state tournament brackets. The Crusaders, ranked third in the Class LL division, had held off New Canaan, 63-52, in its opener and defeated Wilton, 89-65, in the second round. Strong shooting nights from Wes Oates, who hit four three-pointers among his 24 points, and Dyran Henderson (22 points) sparked the Crusader win over Wilton, which had upset Crosby in an opening-round game.
Holy Cross ran into a hot shooter in the next round but survived the quarterfinal affair against East Hartford. The Hornets’ Troy McKoy hit seven threes and scored 52 points, but the Crusaders converted 26 of 32 foul shots on the night to secure a 79-76 victory and extend the coaching career of Tim McDonald.
The Class LL semifinal against an upstart Hartford Bulkeley team was a tight, deliberately paced affair for most of the game. Up by three points after three periods, Holy Cross scored 12 of the game’s next 14 points to pull away for a 50-37 victory, with seniors Stinson and Leichner combining for 32 points.
That meant that McDonald’s final game at the helm would come in a state final, the third time he had guided the Crusaders to the LL title game – having lost to Wilbur Cross in 1981 and to Norwalk in 1982.
Tim McDonald
Norwalk would represent the opponent again this time; the Bears held an identical record to Holy Cross (22-3) and featured a strong inside game led by 6-9 center Todd Holland.
The Fairfield-bound Holland picked up two first-quarter fouls in the final, yet Norwalk maintained a 35-34 advantage at halftime. Stinson then scored seven points and the 6-7 Leichner added five in a third quarter that saw Holy Cross retake the lead.
The back-and-forth affair was tied twice in a dramatic final period, the last at 57-all with three-and-a-half minutes remaining. Stinson then gave Holy Cross the lead with one of his patented spinning drives to the hoop, and converted the ensuing foul shot for a crucial three-point play.
Holland and Leichner traded baskets before Norwalk’s big man fouled out with two minutes to play, having scored 20 points. Norwalk cut the lead to 64-63 with under a minute left, but Crusader reserve guard Mike Kolesnik scored on a drive with 35 seconds left – for his only points of the game – and Dyran Henderson and Tony Santos each sank two free throws to secure a 70-65 Holy Cross victory and the first state basketball title in school history.
Stinson, who finished with 21 points and 15 rebounds, was named the game’s most valuable player. Leichner, Henderson and Wes Oates also hit double figures for the victorious Crusaders in Coach McDonald’s final game on the sidelines.
“He is so much more than a coach,” Leichner said of McDonald to reporters after the game. “He is a model for us all and we wanted very much to win this for him, as well as ourselves.”
“It’s a great feeling,” acknowledged McDonald, head coach since Holy Cross first started a varsity program in 1970-71. “But this championship is not just for me but for all 1,500 students in the school.”
McDonald, who would continue to serve Holy Cross students in administrative positions through the 2014-15 school year, finished his 18-year coaching career with 279 wins and seven Naugatuck Valley League titles.
Stinson and Wilby’s Phil Lott, who ended his career as the Naugatuck Valley League’s all-time leading scorer, were named first-team All-State for their respective classes by the New Haven Register. The two also headed the 1987-88 All-NVL team, with Lott becoming just the sixth player to be named All-NVL for three seasons.
Also selected to the All-NVL team were the Crosby pair of Wayne Boyette and Curt Steward and Sacred Heart’s Derreck Pruden – who joined Lott and Boyette in surpassing the decades-old single-game scoring mark when he hit for 54 points in a win over Naugatuck.
Stinson and Lott also headlined the All-City team announced by the Republican-American. The first team also included Boyette of Crosby, Sacred Heart’s Pruden, and LaMarr Powell of Kennedy.
The Holy Cross pair of Doug Leichner and Wes Oates made the All-City second team, joined by Curt Steward of Crosby, Wilby’s Keith Lott and Brian Murphy of Sacred Heart.
Winners of the city’s annual awards for seniors included Phil Lott as the 1988 recipient of the Billy Finn Award. Stinson of Holy Cross was honored with the city’s sportsmanship award, named in honor of Lt. Jack Cullinan, and Sacred Heart’s Steve Hebb earned the Doc McInerney Award as top scholar among the year’s seniors.