Norwich — There's always the next thing: Norwich Free Academy coach Bill Scarlata thinking one step ahead about the number of teams which could possibly knock off the Wildcats in the upcoming Eastern Connecticut Conference Division I tournament.

"Waterford's tough. East Lyme gave us trouble. This is not the old days where we're so much better than everybody else," Scarlata said.

For Tuesday night, however, NFA was the best team on the floor in a 59-51 victory over New London, and it came at the most opportune time. NFA, ranked No. 10 in the most recent GameTimeCT/New Haven Register state poll, defeated top-ranked New London, for one thing, and also earned a share of the ECC Division I championship along with the Whalers with a regular-season split between the two.

It was NFA's 11th straight victory, topping No. 8 Ridgefield 59-54 and frequent Class LL tournament opponent South Windsor 62-37 prior to New London.

New London blitzed 53-37 NFA just prior to Christmas.

But the Wildcats (15-4, 7-1), with one regular-season game remaining Wednesday with Stonington, have evolved since then, adding another scoring threat in freshman center Makayla Poirier-Vaughters to complement the all-star guard tandem of Hailey Conley and Mackenzie Burke. The Wildcats have not lost since Jan. 4 against fifth-ranked Mercy (48-41).

And Tuesday they took a 35-24 lead over New London at halftime, getting 13 first-half points from Burke, nine in the second quarter.

Burke finished with 19 points and Conley with 21, 12 in the fourth quarter — including 8-for-9 from the free throw line — as NFA thwarted New London's furious comeback attempt. The Whalers (18-2, 7-1) pulled within two points on a three-point play by India Pagan to start the fourth quarter.

"(Scarlata) kept telling us in the huddle, 'If you want it, go get it,'" said Burke, who along with Conley has started since she was a freshman. "It was like, 'I want it!' ... We knew that if they were going to take over the lead, we were going to have problems, lose our momentum. We wanted to keep up the streak, keep the lead."

New London went on 8-2 run in the third quarter, keyed by six points from Spencer Roman, holding NFA to two free throws over ther final four minutes of the period.

After Pagan's three to start the fourth quarter, the teams went back and forth, with Xaryia Melendez scoring on a jump shot from the top of the key and two free throws to match a basket by Burke and two free throws by Conley. NFA still led 45-43.

Scarlata called a timeout with his team trying to inbound the ball and 4:18 to play.

Conley responded with a three-point play and followed that with a second straight quick drive to the basket the next trip down the floor as the Wildcats pulled ahead by seven. The Whalers whittled it back to three on baskets by Pagan and Rosie Nicholson, but could never get any closer than 52-49 as NFA closed with a 7-2 run, scoring all seven from the foul line.

"NFA's a top 10 team; they've been all year," New London coach Holly Misto said. "They've got two great guards.

"... We didn't back down. We still get a Division I championship; we're still champions and that was our first goal this season. But we're not making very good decisions with three minutes left in every game. You've got to execute and we didn't execute."

Pagan finished with 22 points and 14 rebounds for New London and Melendez had 11 points. Poirier-Vaughters contributed nine points for NFA, which had a total of seven players score, more than usual, according to Scarlata.

"The other kids did a great job in the first half scoring," Scarlata said. "I tell them all the time, if you can get 4-6 points per game, that just makes us stronger. ... All wins are great wins, but I was happy with that. We're getting a lot better.

"You can say all you want about the people not wanting to play tough schedules. For us, when we get in a situation like this, we're used to the speed, used to the adversity. We've kind of talked about it the last couple weeks. 'It's a situation we weren't expecting; we can get a share.' The kids took it and they did things ... against a good team."

v.fulkerson@theday.com