Plainfield — The narrative surrounding New London High School girls' basketball – and reasonably so — normally refers to a pair of future Division I college players: Jada Lucas (Hartford) and India Pagan (Stony Brook).

This was the day, however, when the others wearing the green and gold showed everybody watching that the Whalers are far more than that.

Neither Lucas nor Pagan — although Pagan was honored Saturday during the game for earning and then eclipsing her 1,000th career rebound — weren't as efficient as normal. But some Leilani McClellan (eight points) here, some Cora Sawyer (three made jumpers) there and a dash of K.D. Spencer Roman produced a 51-36 over Waterford and a trip to the Eastern Connecticut Conference Division I championship game.

New London, the No. 2 seed, will play at No. 1 Norwich Free Academy on Wednesday night at 7:30.

"McClellan stepped up, Cora stepped up and Spencer stepped up," New London coach Holly Misto said. "We're a team. We're not just two people. They looked for their shots today and they hit them. We need that. We're not going anywhere if we just try to pound it inside or start jacking the ball. They're going to get open shots because other teams will focus on India and Jada."

Pagan finished with 10 points as did Rosie Nicholson for the Whalers.

This was also a measure of revenge for New London. Waterford eliminated New London in last season's ECC semifinals. And early, it looked as though history might repeat, what with Waterford senior Mia Brennan make some deep threes.

"We're not supposed to let her have those open looks," Misto said. "But I knew my kids were ready for this game. We've had some setbacks (a loss to NFA earlier in the week) and we had a couple of heart to hearts the other day. They were ready. We weren't going to let them take it from us this time."

Brennan finished with 18 points before fouling out.

And so now the Whalers, who will likely lose the state's No. 1 ranking, can achieve something far better this week. They can win the ECC title on the floor of their biggest rival, the team that beat them but a week earlier.

"Whoever we play, we play. The kids don't care. I don't care," Misto said, before knowing outcome of the Bacon-NFA semifinal. "We just want to win the ECCs. That's the goal. Whoever we have to beat to accomplish that goal, we don't care."

m.dimauro@theday.com