Matira starts it off for Colonels

Ledyard - Ledyard High School coach Adam Baber was being interviewed following his team's 48-41 victory over Stonington in the first round of the Eastern Connecticut Conference girls' basketball tournament.

And every so often he stopped to take a deep breath, inhaling and exhaling as if he just completed a 100-meter dash.

While Ledyard got the first 10 points of the game from sophomore guard Bianca Matira in the opening 2 minutes, 48 seconds Thursday, giving the Colonels a 10-0 lead, the rest of the game wasn't nearly that easy.

"We were saying before that we needed to all give our energy and everything and we did it," said Matira, who finished with 14 points, including two 3-pointers that came during her personal 10-0 run. "I just wanted to get our energy going. Stonington is a team that hustles a lot and we needed that, too."

It was the third victory for Ledyard this season over Stonington, with both teams competing in the ECC Medium Division.

It gave the seventh-seeded Colonels (14-7) a date with No. 2 Waterford (17-3) in the tournament's quarterfinal round at noon Saturday at Norwich Free Academy.

"You can see how we've come a long way," said Baber, who starts one junior, three sophomores and a freshman. "The players on the court realized (Matira) was hot and got her the ball."

Stonington trailed 16-4 after one quarter and 22-13 at halftime, but kept at the Colonels. Ledyard, which turned the ball over 21 times, had two players pick up their fourth fouls in the third quarter and put Stonington in the double-bonus with 5:26 remaining in the game, sending the Bears to the free throw line 23 times.

Suddenly, to start the third quarter, Amanda Roy hit a 3-pointer and Margot Calmar converted an offensive rebound to bring the Bears within five at 24-19. Ledyard's Olivia DelGrosso answered by banking in a 3-pointer at the other end, but Ryanne Paige then added a pair of free throws for Stonington, making it 27-21.

Ledyard pushed the lead back to 15 with Hannah Lawrence scoring on an offensive rebound to end the third quarter and one to start the fourth quarter.

Stonington's seven-point run, capped at the 3:21 mark on a broken play - Jamie Ballengee dove and shoveled the ball to Bri-Ana Johnson, who quickly got it to Roy for a layup - brought it back to 42-35 and the Bears got it down to five once more on a shot by Falecia Cabral with 41.6 seconds left.

The Bears were forced to foul, however, and Matira went 2-for-2 to seal it.

"We dug ourselves into a hole," Stonington coach Paulla Solar said. "We need somebody to take over, to offensively take control. Defensively, we do a good job, then we hand it right back over again."

Cabral had 13 points and Calmar had 11 rebounds for Stonington (10-11), which turned the ball over 22 times and went just 13-for-23 from the foul line.

DelGrosso had 11 points for Ledyard, Kylie Fustini had 10 rebounds - six offensive rebounds - Arianna Fustini seven assists and Matira five steals.

Ledyard lost four straight games, to Waterford, Windsor Locks in overtime, Montville and NFA, before righting itself with a 48-35 victory over Griswold on Wednesday night. The ECC game was then played at 4:30 p.m., due to an open house scheduled for Thursday night at Ledyard High School.

"We had to weather the storm," Baber said of the losing streak. "... The Griswold coach, he does a good job slowing the pace down, controlling the pace of the game. (Today was) pure chaos, 'let's get chaos going.' Stonington's tough and every game they get better."

v.fulkerson@theday.com