Ledyard — The Ledyard High School boys’ basketball team didn’t so much send a message to East Lyme and the rest of the Eastern Connecticut Conference on Wednesday night, it roared the message into their faces like a death metal vocalist.

Isiah McNair scored 16 of his game-high 22 points in a ridiculously dominating third quarter as Ledyard squished the Vikings 79-42 to continue its recent blitz through the Eastern Connecticut Conference’s Division I.

East Lyme won the previous meeting 71-52 on Dec. 23. The Colonels flipped the script on Wednesday, ran it through a shredder and then set it on fire.

“It was the second game (of the season), so we weren’t playing well as a team,” McNair said of the first game against the Vikings. “We wanted to show them how hard we can work and how hard we can be as a team.”

Steven Fletcher had 16 points and five assists for Ledyard (11-2, 4-2) and Trevor Hutchins had eight points and 12 rebounds. McNair also had four steals.

Twelve of the 13 who played for the Colonels scored.

It was Ledyard’s sixth straight win and its third straight convincing win in the division. It routed first-place Norwich Free Academy on Jan. 24 (77-53) and then two days later won at New London (63-53).

“The last two weeks, we’ve stated emphasizing more in practice (working) on the defensive end,” Ledyard coach Dave Cornish said. “I’ve got guys who can score. I’ve got guys who are offensive minded. But you have to put it into your head to play defense.

“Our defense is our offense, and so we did a great job tonight holding them down. That’s a good team over there.”

Dev Ostrowski scored a team-high nine for East Lyme (9-5, 2-3). To put that in perspective, he scored 30 against the Colonels in the previous meeting.

“Our energy level the first time we played them was through the roof,” East Lyme coach Jeff Bernardi said. “Today, we had none. Absolutely no energy. I don’t understand it.

“We were one game out of first place (in Division I). We were tied with Ledyard and New London for second. You would think that these guys would be on fire ready for this game and it just didn’t happen.”

Things were going well enough for East Lyme early as it led 10-6 with less than two minutes left in the first quarter.

Fletcher ended the quarter with back-to-back 3-pointers to jumpstart a 13-0 run for Ledyard.

Austin Brandt’s layup gave Ledyard a 19-10 lead with 5 minutes, 26 seconds left in the first half. Brandt scored seven of his nine in the second quarter.

The Colonels pushed their advantage to 39-21 to end the half. And then they really ran wild. They opened the second half with a 17-0 run with McNair scoring 12.

Eddie Suarez’s layup gave Ledyard a 56-21 lead with 4:48 left in the third quarter. It outscored East Lyme in that period, 29-5.

“We’re young, and some of that immaturity has plagued us throughout the year,” Bernardi said. “Until we fight through adversity, we’re not going to achieve our full potential.”

The Colonels led by as much as 71-26 early in the fourth quarter.

“I feel that we are a very good team,” Cornish said, “but that much better than the rest of those three teams we just beat, I didn't expect that. But I’m pleased with the effort that these guys have given me.

“When they come out and play the way they’ve played, we’re a tough team to beat.”

n.griffen@theday.com