Old Lyme — Old Lyme High School coach Don Bugbee kept yelling for his team to push the ball Monday, opening night for the Class S girls' basketball state tournament, but the Wildcats didn't seem to need many reminders.

No. 15 Old Lyme constantly looked to run, scoring its first three baskets off fast breaks, and got out to a sizable lead against 18th-seeded Hartford Magnet Trinity College Academy in the first quarter.

The Wildcats won 58-31, getting 15 points from Olivia Ellis, often the first one down the floor in the first quarter, when Old Lyme sprinted to a 19-5 advantage. Ellis had eight in the first quarter and 13 at halftime, including delivering a three-point play off a second-quarter fast break.

“I like to do that always, get it into a little bit of a track meet,” Bugbee said. “I like to speed up the game. We have the speed to do that. We have the parts to do that. They play as a team.”

“That's what we kind of always look for,” Ellis said. “We're short, but we're a quick team. That's how we get the advantage.”

Jordan Lewis added 14 points and Audrey Gavin 11 for Old Lyme (14-8), which will play at No. 2 Housatonic Regional on Thursday night in the second round.

That meant for Old Lyme's seniors, Ellis, Maggie Berger, Abby Berger and Tessa Kroes, this marked their farewell to their home gym. Ellis, a four-year member of the Wildcats' varsity, is one of the team's captains this season and its point guard.

Unlike a lot of girls at the small school who play multiple sports, some for the two-time Class S champion girls' soccer team, Ellis plays basketball exclusively. She lists former UConn star Maya Moore as her idol and “the nicest person I've ever met.”

“I'm a basketball girl,” Ellis said. “I love the game. I always have. I like the physicalness of it. The mental toughness you have to have. The perseverance. It's made me who I am.”

“She makes things happen,” Bugbee said of Ellis. “… This has been a really good season, a great group of girls. They work hard.”

Old Lyme led 32-19 at halftime, at which point Bugbee put rebounding first on the list of things to discuss in the locker room.

HMTCA scored six straight points in the second quarter to pull within 20-10, consistently outrebounding the Wildcats, before Gavin responded with a jump shot and a 3-pointer to get the margin back within a more comfortable range.

“We didn't rebound at all the first half,” Bugbee said. “We can rebound. We just didn't for some reason.”

After a basket by HMTCA's Nicole Rodado to start the third quarter, Old Lyme reeled off 13 straight points, including a pair of putbacks by Emily Rivera, which was more to Bugbee's liking. Lewis capped the run with a smooth-looking left-handed layup on a fast break and the Wildcats led 45-21.

Old Lyme was coming off a loss to Westbrook in the Shoreline Conference tournament quarterfinals way back on Feb. 18.

“We took two days off and we came back and we've been practicing a lot,” Bugbee said.

“We're feeling good,” Ellis said. “We had some tough games during the season, but we're not ready for the season to end.”

v.fulkerson@theday.com