Photo: Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media

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Bassick's Kiana Johnson practices with the rest of the team at the school in Bridgeport, Conn., on Wednesday Jan. 24, 2018. The team has undergone a remarkable turnaround and this season they are 9-2 and have beaten some very good programs. less

Photo: Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media

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Bassick's Britany Elliott practices with the rest of the team at the school in Bridgeport, Conn., on Wednesday Jan. 24, 2018. The team has undergone a remarkable turnaround and this season they are 9-2 and have beaten some very good programs. less

Photo: Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media

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Bassick's Britany Elliott at team practice at the school in Bridgeport, Conn., on Wednesday Jan. 24, 2018. The team has undergone a remarkable turnaround and this season they are 9-2 and have beaten some very good programs. less

Photo: Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media

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Bassick's Kiana Johnson spins the ball of her finger as she practices with the rest of the team at the school in Bridgeport, Conn., on Wednesday Jan. 24, 2018. The team has undergone a remarkable turnaround and this season they are 9-2 and have beaten some very good programs. less

Photo: Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media

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Bassick's Briana Elliot practices with the rest of the team at the school in Bridgeport, Conn., on Wednesday Jan. 24, 2018. The team has undergone a remarkable turnaround and this season they are 9-2 and have beaten some very good programs. less

Photo: Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media

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Photo: Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media

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Bassick's Kiana Johnson practices shooting foul shots during team practice at the school in Bridgeport, Conn., on Wednesday Jan. 24, 2018. The team has undergone a remarkable turnaround and this season they are 9-2 and have beaten some very good programs. less

Photo: Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media

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Bassick's Destiny Allen practices shooting foul shots during team practice at the school in Bridgeport, Conn., on Wednesday Jan. 24, 2018. The team has undergone a remarkable turnaround and this season they are 9-2 and have beaten some very good programs. less

Photo: Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media

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The Bassick girls basketball team takes part in practice at the school in Bridgeport, Conn., on Wednesday Jan. 24, 2018. The team has undergone a remarkable turnaround and this season they are 9-2 and have beaten some very good programs. less

Photo: Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media

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Photo: Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media

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Photo: Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media

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Bassick Head Coach Keith Pierce sends a ball back to the players during team practice at the school in Bridgeport, Conn., on Wednesday Jan. 24, 2018. The team has undergone a remarkable turnaround and this season they are 9-2 and have beaten some very good programs. less

Photo: Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media

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Photo: Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media

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Photo: Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media

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BRIDGEPORT — On paper, it was just another regular-season game, a non-conference matchup between the Bassick and Masuk girls basketball teams played on a neutral court in December.

From his seat along the Bassick bench that day, Keith Pierce noticed a coach from Notre Dame-Fairfield sitting in the stands, watched intently. He appeared to be taking notes on what would go into the books as a 47-32 Lions victory.

Odds were, Pierce thought to himself, the coach was in attendance to get a closer look at another South-West Conference team. After all, the Lancers were scheduled to play Masuk a month later.

Even if that was the case, Pierce took the coach’s presence as a subtle reminder of just how much Bassick’s program has grown these last few years.

“It’s never happened. We’re playing games now and there’s other teams scouting,” Pierce, who has been the head coach at Bassick for the last six years, said Wednesday.

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A Look at the Past

2018: 9-3

2017: 14-9 (Lost in CSC semifinals to Capital Prep, 71-21; lost in Class M 1st round to Seymour, 52-38)*

2016: 4-14*

2015: 0-20

2014: 0-20

2013: 2-18

2012: 0-20

2011: 0-20

2010: 1-19

2009: 0-20

2008: 2-18

2007: 7-13

*Bassick played two years in the Constitution State Conference. Prior to that, the Lions were a member of the FCIAC.

All the Lions have done this year is win nine of their first 12 games. Included in that is a 66-59 win over Wilton, a team that’s 8-3 and is just three years removed from capturing the Class LL title.

It’s a stark turnaround for a program that has five winless seasons since 2009. It’s the same program that from 2009-2015 lost 134 of the 137 games they played.

“I know we’ve surprised a whole lot of people,” Pierce said. “A lot of people didn’t expect (this). We have expectations because we see how hard the girls work and how they play — their dedication. Once you dedicate yourself to something that you really, really want to take pride in doing, it all pays off.”

That message is echoed by Pierce’s assistant Jonathan Brown, who has had two coaching stints at Bassick totaling roughly 14 years. A seasoned AAU coach, Brown is the X’s-and-O’s guy. Pierce handles all the paperwork to ensure that physicals are completed and grades are in order.

“I give him the leeway to do what he needs to do,” Pierce said, explaining that they’re more like “co-head coaches.” “I’ll say, ‘Put in what you need to put in and I’ll figure out what you did. So you go ahead.’ We still do it to this day.

“My motto is this: ‘If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.’”

Pierce doesn’t want to mess with success. Neither does Brown, who has seen the culture around the team change dramatically in the three years since he returned.

In 2015-16, the first of two seasons in which Bassick and city rival Harding were members of the Constitution State Conference, the Lions went 4-14. They made a dramatic improvement in 2016-17, finishing 14-9 and making the state playoffs for the first time in over 30 years.

Making this year’s success all the more impressive is the fact that the Lions are playing a much tougher schedule as an independent program. They’ve been boosted by the return of four starters: guards Kiana Johnson and Britany Elliott and forwards Destiny Martinez and Destiny Allen. A freshman, Cash’e Rogers, leads the team in scoring with 16 points per game.

“They figured if you’re in the tech league, you’re in a baby league,” Brown said. “We proved them wrong. We got outside the tech league, and here we are.”

In 2013-14, the Lions lost games by scores of 61-6 and 53-9. Fast forward to this year, and they already have four wins against the SWC (Barlow, Masuk and Immaculate twice) and two against the FCIAC (Trinity Catholic and Wilton).

“We came a long way last year,” Johnson, a junior, said. “This year, people are starting to see how we’re prospering.”

Few coaches have a better pulse of basketball in Bridgeport than Pierce, who played at Harding alongside John Bagley and later coached for 20 years under the legendary Charlie Bentley. Pierce believes Bassick’s resurgence can be tied to the return of the middle school basketball programs in Bridgeport in 2012-13.

“Back in the day,” Pierce said, “you’d have girls who liked to play basketball, but they had no knowledge of the game.”

Brown, who runs two AAU camps — Division-I for girls from fourth through eighth grade and Connecticut Basketball Academy for boys and girls from third grade up to high school — is a vibrant personality, a coach whom players describe as a “mentor.” His enthusiasm has spilled over into not only games, but practices.

Junior guard Amaya Labrador, who attends The Bridge Academy Charter School in Bridgeport, said it was evident early this season that some girls saw basketball as an after-school activity and nothing more. But now?

“Coming to practice now, everyone takes it serious, regardless of if you want to play in college or not,” Labrador said. “We all want to win.”

Everyone is beginning to notice.

“(Opponents) want to know. They wonder how we’re winning these games,” Brown said. “What’s going on? What talent are we overlooking?”

dbonjour@ctpost.com; @DougBonjour

Bassick girls open eyes with impressive start

Published 8:41 pm, Thursday, January 25, 2018

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