Willimantic — If St. Bernard School coach Mike Nystrom knew the day would end this way, he might have chosen — at some point — to hit the reset button on Tuesday.

As it was, the Saints lost for the first time this season, 47-33 to Windham, and, as time expired, all-state forward Casey Sullivan was sitting on the floor behind the St. Bernard bench having her injured ankle checked by a trainer. Her teammates sitting on the bench were somber.

"I thought we lost our chance at the beginning of the third quarter," Nystrom said. "They didn't score for four and a half minutes and we only scored two. We didn't take advantage. ... It wasn't a 14-point game, but when you're chasing them at the end, that's what happens."

Windham, in its first season in the Eastern Connecticut Conference Small Division, took over first place. The Whippets are 5-3 overall, 3-0 in the division.

St. Bernard, meanwhile, came into the game at 6-0 overall, 2-0 in the division, having topped Tourtellotte on Monday night 63-24.

The Saints, though, were missing starter Kaitlyn Berkel, who is ill, and played just five players until Sullivan was helped to the bench with 31.1 seconds remaining.

St. Bernard pulled within three on a basket by freshman center Caitlyn Dittman with 6:30 to play, making it 34-31. But Windham closed with a 13-2 run, getting a crucial 3-pointer by Mary White with 3:48 to go to push the lead to seven.

After a Windham timeout with 3:03 left, the Whippets took a minute off the clock, playing keepaway from the Saints. St. Bernard's only basket thereafter came from Brittney Walenta, making it 40-33.

Windham hit 5 of 6 free throws in the last 1:13 to wrap things up.

Windham coach Ken Valliere was in the audience during Monday's St. Bernard rout of Tourtellotte.

"Their size," said Valliere, asked what worried him about facing St. Bernard, alluding to Dittman in the middle and Sullivan either inside or outside the 3-point line. "Nobody in the entire ECC matches their size. Everything runs through their post.

"We threw four of five things at them (defensively) to try to confuse them a little bit. We won, so hopefully something was working."

Dittman finished with 14 points for St. Bernard and Sullivan had 11.

Lindsay Phaneuf led Windham with 15 points, White had 12 and Nicole Moore 11.

"I saw Windham play Griswold (65-29 win for Windham) and I knew they were good," Nystrom said. "I told Kenny his team is starting to look like the teams he had a few years ago (state champions in 2005, 2011) ... starting to. Last year didn't resemble it.

"... It hurts us to only have five (players). When we have six we have a nice rotation; everyone's getting a break. And we played last night. Still, Windham had a lot to do with our problems. They were pumped up."

The Whippets started by banking in a 3-point field goal for the first points of the game. St. Bernard never led, trailing 14-9 after the first quarter and 26-19 at halftime. Dittman had 12 points at halftime.

St. Bernard finished 2-for-7 from the free throw line, while Windham was 10-for-13.

v.fulkerson@theday.com