Stonington — Kayla Jean-Pierre spent a good portion of the second quarter on the Waterford High School bench Friday night in foul trouble.

Then, the minute Stonington finally found a way to stop Mia Brennan from scoring — Brennan hit a 3-pointer to close the first half that came from halfway to a different zip code — there came Jean-Pierre back in the game with the confidence befitting a senior center.

And Waterford got even better.

The Lancers got ahead and stayed ahead in their Eastern Connecticut Conference Division II matchup, beating Stonington 43-32 behind 14 points and nine rebounds from Olivia Pacheco, 11 points, three steals and two assists from Brennan and a big effort from the 5-foot-9 Jean-Pierre, with nine points, 11 rebounds and two blocked shots.

Jean-Pierre had five points and assisted Julianna Bonilla on another basket in the third quarter as Waterford (5-2, 3-1) upped its lead from 11 points at the half to 15 after three quarters, 37-22.

"I definitely felt confident (coming back in); the rest of the team was still going strong," said Jean-Pierre, who left with 4 minutes, 38 seconds remaining in the second quarter after picking up her third foul, two of them charges. "Me coming in was only to help the team increase our lead."

"She was huge tonight," Waterford coach Mark Capasso said of Jean-Pierre. "She's been so incredibly consistent. She's always been kind of underrated because last year we had all those seniors, but she's a terrific all-around player."

Rebekah Sanders, who is 6-foot, added nine rebounds to help lead Waterford's frontcourt of Jean-Pierre, the 5-11 Pacheco and also Marilyn Childs, who had a key basket in the second quarter while filling in for Jean-Pierre.

The bigger Lancers consistently made things difficult for Stonington to see its way clear on offense, as the Bears (6-3, 2-2) turned the ball over 16 times and shot just 19.6 percent (11-for-56).

"We couldn't keep 'em off the boards; that's something we really need to work on," Stonington coach Paulla Solar said. "But we also could not capitalize on our shooting. I thought my kids worked, hustled, but you can't just keep playing defense. Offensively, you've got to put the ball in the basket."

Kate Johnson had 10 points to lead Stonington, while Aliza Bell had eight points, 10 rebounds and five steals. Bell was 6-for-7 from the free throw line.

Stonington trailed just 11-8 after a 3-pointer and a bank shot, both by Kate Hall, but Jean-Pierre was fouled getting an offensive rebound and knocked in two free throws to make it 13-8 after one quarter.

Stonington pulled within 13-11 when Bell hit both ends of a one-and-one, but Brennan responded with a 3-pointer. Later in the quarter, Waterford pushed the lead to 10 on a wide open layup by Pacheco.

Solar said it was the Bears' objective to keep their deficit under 10 at the half, a plan which was torpedoed by Brennan's long 3 with 2.2 seconds remaining before halftime. Brennan scored all 11 of her points in the first half.

Waterford was coming off a 49-45 loss at home Tuesday night against Ledyard.

"We definitely had to get a win," Jean-Pierre said of the Lancers' mindset entering the Stonington game. "We don't like to have consecutive losses. Just to play hard. ... We lost seven seniors from last year who were all really good. We just have to get everyone involved."

v.fulkerson@theday.com