New London — New London was in the midst of its final regular-season girls' basketball game last week and the Whalers were accelerating, all of their pieces in finely tuned motion.

And there was India Pagan, the 6-foot-2 center, as New London's passer.

She gathered a defensive rebound and threw a length-of-the-court pass to point guard Jada Lucas for a layup that made it 45-12 in the third quarter of the game against Ledyard, a 63-22 victory which would allow the third-ranked Whalers to finish 20-0.

A few moments later, Pagan, on offense once again, got the ball at the top of the key, took a few steps, leapt and passed the ball to forward Charee Osborne underneath the basket for another layup. The pass was more like a dunk, with Pagan's jump allowing her to get the ball over the head of a defender to Osborne on a line. That made it 50-15.

New London coach Holly Misto had the technical term for that play, with the Whalers' post players finding each other with a variety of passes: High-low.

Osborne just calls it fun.

“It's street ball. That's the best ball we can play,” said Osborne, a 5-foot-10 Class M all-state selection last season. “It's 'dish here, dish there.' It's so much better to make the extra pass. 'Boom, boom, boom, layup.' It's so much better. And it's fun.”

New London, now 21-0 overall and the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Connecticut Conference tournament, will play No. 4 Waterford in the semifinals on Wednesday (7:30 p.m.) at Plainfield High School, following the game between No. 2 Bacon Academy and No. 3 Norwich Free Academy which begins at 6.

Certainly, Pagan and Osborne, both starters on the Whalers' 2014 Class M state championship team, account for the greatest number of Whalers' rebounds.

During the regular season, Pagan, a junior, averaged 10.1 points (shooting 51 percent from the floor) and 10.7 rebounds per game. Osborne, a senior who recently achieved her 1,000th career point, had 15.1 points (shooting 57 percent) and 9.1 rebounds.

But aside from Lucas — who leads the team in scoring (18.0) and assists (62) — and fellow guard Rosalee Nicholson (49 assists), Pagan and Osborne also have the most assists. Pagan, who had a team-best six against Ledyard, finished the regular season with 41 assists, while Osborne had 36.

“I watched them in a couple fall league games before I got the job, so I knew they liked to run the floor,” said Misto, in her second season with the Whalers after nine seasons as the head coach in her hometown of Westerly. “Coming from Rhode Island (where there's a shot clock), I was concerned about the shot clock issue. It doesn't affect us.”

“This team is not selfish. This team is very special,” Pagan said. “We all started playing rec together. We played with each other for so long, we know how we play, we know where we are at every second. We have juniors and seniors who know how to do this. We like to push, push, push.”

Of course, there are a few gems from Lucas, too, in terms of passing ability.

Standing on the right side of the court in the second half against Ledyard, Lucas rocketed a pass to Pagan in the post, threading it through the defense.

But even Lucas, the expert, knows the bigs can pass it, too … like the way they consistently get the outlet passes to her after a defensive rebound. In practice this week at Conway Gymnasium, during a drill for outlet passes, Osborne made them seem easy, barely needing to look.

“I love how they pass the ball,” Lucas said. “It's great when you pass the ball and someone finishes. … (The outlet passes off defensive rebounds) open up options. It gets the fast break going.”

Said Osborne: “We know where to pass it and when to pass it.”

Notes

• NFA, 19-3 and ranked sixth in the state, is the four-time defending ECC tournament champion and returns reigning Most Outstanding Player Cebria Outlow. The Wildcats split with Bacon (20-2) this season, sharing the Large Division title. New London beat Waterford (17-5) twice during the regular season.

v.fulkerson@theday.com

Twitter: @vickieattheday