Vikings knock off Bobcats at the buzzer

Norwich - In the last week, East Lyme High School coach Bill Reagan drew up a play designed to get the ball from end to end with time running out.

So with 8.7 seconds remaining in Saturday's Eastern Connecticut Conference girls' basketball quarterfinal against Bacon Academy, score tied at 43, Reagan called a timeout and drew it up.

It didn't work exactly the way it was supposed to - one of the Vikings ran the wrong way - but it certainly had its desired effect.

Allison Stoddard, East Lyme's steady junior guard, got the ball in her hands and ran with it, paused at the 3-point circle, looked around for some help, then decided to keep going.

Stoddard hit a bank shot as time ran out, as No. 6 East Lyme toppled No. 3 Bacon 45-43. Bacon won the ECC Large Division this season, the division in which East Lyme also plays, and was the defending ECC tournament champion.

"I just tried to penetrate and either get a shot off or kick it to a teammate. I couldn't really tell how much time was left," Stoddard said. "... I definitely have memories of them beating us to win ECCs. Today, we valued the ball a lot more."

Stoddard finished with 16 points and Jenna Schumacher had 14, 12 in the first half, for the Vikings, who led throughout the game until there was 1 minute, 53 seconds remaining. The Vikings will next play No. 2 Waterford (18-3) in the ECC semifinals at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Plainfield High School.

Schumacher hit three 3-pointers in the first half and East Lyme led 24-17.

In the second half, Stoddard took the reins on offense by driving to the basket with regularity, as the Vikings (15-6) continued to double- and triple-team Bacon's Taylor McLaughlin on defense. East Lyme tried to prevent McLaughlin, who scored a career-high 32 points against the Vikings last time she saw them, from catching the ball at all.

"We were conscious of that," Reagan said of McLaughlin's potential impact. "The biggest thing was trying to negate McLaughlin. ... They handled us without a problem at all (59-50, Jan. 31) the second time we played them.

"That's a nice win for us."

With East Lyme still leading by seven to start the fourth quarter, 38-31, Carlee Putnam hit a 3-pointer for Bacon to immediately close the gap.

After a layup by East Lyme's Michelle Lagrotteria to push it back to 40-34, McLaughlin split a double-team for a layup, Putnam hit two free throws and Sarah Rogers scored on assist by Michaela Siver to tie things 40-40.

East Lyme led 42-41 and had the ball with 49.4 seconds left, at which point Bacon had only three team fouls. The Bobcats (18-3) scrambled to keep fouling East Lyme before finally putting the Vikings on the line with 25.7 seconds left.

Schumacher missed the front end of a one-and-one, but Rebecca McGlone secured the offensive rebound. Lagrotteria then hit one of two free throws to give East Lyme a two-point lead, leading to one final moment for McLaughlin to frustrate the Vikings.

McLaughlin was fouled and calmly sank both ends of a one-and-one with 8.7 seconds remaining to make it 43-all, giving her 21 points and setting up Stoddard's mad dash.

Siver had 12 points and 11 rebounds for Bacon.

"We had a hard time matching up with No. 10 (Stoddard)," Bacon coach Dave Shea said. "If we don't cover her then they can get it to Schumacher or (Lagrotteria) on the outside. We didn't play well and they did play a good game. It was a tough one to lose.

"They made us do some different things."

v.fulkerson@theday.com