Mohegan — New London senior Zanashia Croft believed that her team needed to increase its intensity after the first quarter of Tuesday night’s Eastern Connecticut Conference Division I girls’ basketball final.
Croft helped supercharge the second-seeded Whalers’ attack in the second quarter as they scored 17 unanswered points and went on to beat top-seeded Bacon Academy, 66-55, at Mohegan Sun Arena.
The two-game attendance was 1,375.
New London led 19-18, with 4 minutes, 58 left in the second quarter.
The Whalers proceeded to go on an 17-0 run and go ahead, 36-18, with 1:27 left in the first half.
Croft had as many steals that quarter as Bacon had field goals (four) and scored nine of her 11 points. She finished with six steals, too.
“We just needed to boost up our intensity,” Croft said. “I wanted to jump the gaps. I wanted to be as intense as possible to get the steals to lead us to transition (baskets), to lead us to scoring. I just wanted us to be more uplifted with our defense; be way more aggressive.”
Junior Nalyce Dudley scored 15 of her 25 points in the first half and added 10 rebounds to earn all-tournament MVP honors for New London (19-3). Freshman Serenity Lancaster (13 points, seven rebounds) and senior Olivia Goode (11 points) joined Dudley on the all-tournament team.
It was the fourth ECC tournament title in six seasons for the Whalers. They won three straight from 2017-19.
It was the first conference loss of the season for the Bobcats (20-3). Senior Valerie Luizzi (25 points) and junior Marissa Nudd (19 points, nine rebounds) both made the all-tournament team for Bacon.
Bacon had won the only regular season meeting between the two teams, 53-45, on Jan. 3. Dudley missed that game due to illness.
Nudd’s putback cut the Bobcats’…