Ledyard — Pete Vincent, Ledyard High School girls' basketball coach, wasn't happy with Monday's practice, citing a lack of focus. And he sure wasn't all that thrilled with the 10 points the Colonels generated in the first half of Tuesday's game against St. Bernard.

"I said, 'Do you believe me now that we have 10 points at halftime?'" Vincent said. "They weren't ready to take on a team that has a really outstanding player that can take over the game."

Then came the second half, Ledyard's fullcourt pressure which flustered the Saints, man-to-man defense by the Colonels' Delaney Gagnon on St. Bernard's 6-foot-1 star Caitlyn Dittman and a 17-0 Ledyard scoring run capped by a 3-point field goal from sophomore Sarah Serbascewicz.

Featuring a young lineup that's scratching to qualify for the Eastern Connecticut Conference and state tournaments, Ledyard picked up its fifth win of the season with a 38-28 victory over St. Bernard. Serbascewicz scored a game-high 18 points as the Colonels (5-4) came back from an 18-10 deficit at halftime.

Following Ledyard's flurry at the start of the second half, after Dittman scored to make it 20-10, the Colonels led 27-20. Down 20-18, Julia Lavin hit four straight free throws to give Ledyard its first lead of the game at 22-20 and Lavin scored again off a St. Bernard turnover to make it 24-20 with 3 minutes, 8 seconds to play in the quarter.

"We lost the game in three minutes," said St. Bernard coach Mike Nystrom, whose team is 4-4. "That was a zone press (that St. Bernard handled) in the first half. This was man-to-man. They didn't come out (at the beginning) with the same intensity they did in the second half. We did not handle it well."

"That really got us pumped up," Serbascewicz said. "We wanted to come out strong (in the second half), get some steals, some easy baskets. That lit the fire."

Serbascewicz certainly helped matters. Up six with time running out, Serbascewicz drove for two points and was fouled to push the lead to 35-27, came up with a crucial offensive rebound with 53.1 seconds left and hit a pair of free throws with 17.5 seconds remaining for the final margin.

Nystrom had nothing but praise for the way Serbascewicz managed the game for Ledyard.

"She's a really good player. She's a capital 'P' player, almost a throwback," Nystrom said. "She's quick and she knows how to play. She knows when to cut. She rarely makes any mental mistakes."

"She's a 5-foot-2 guard that can take over a game, that loves the game, that can really impact the game," said Vincent, who starts one senior in Rebecca Ahlborn, a junior in Johnay Burns, a pair of sophomores in Lavin and Serbascewicz and a freshman in 5-10 center Miranda Chesnut.

Burns had six steals and Ahlborn five steals for Ledyard and Vincent praised the work of Gagnon, a 5-6 sophomore forward, for taking on the defense of Dittman, who scored 43 points in a game last week for the Saints. The athletic Gagnon is the goalkeeper for the girls' soccer team.

"I told her play her man-to-man, follow her end line to end line, faceguard her, make her uncomfortable," Vincent said. "She was giving up six inches, but Delaney's a tough kid. She's an athlete. She knows how to throw her body around. (Dittman) didn't get as many touches."

Dittman finished with 17 points and Emily Nelson had nine for St. Bernard.

The Saints scored eight straight points to end the first half, four by Dittman and four by Nelson. Dittman, a junior, had 10 points at halftime.

v.fulkerson@theday.com

Twitter: @vickieattheday