Ledyard — It appears that history, at least as it's flavored at East Lyme High School, is going to happen one gasp at a time.

The Vikings, pursuing their first Eastern Connecticut Conference title of any kind in years, needed double overtime Friday night to finally slay defending league champion Ledyard, 70-64, at frantic Standish Gym.

East Lyme (13-1, 5-1), ranked 10th in this week's boys' basketball state poll, remains in first place in Division I of the ECC.

The Vikings' 70 points came from three players: Dev Ostrowski (34), Luke Leonard (20) and J.R. Gandenberger (16). Gandenberger and Ostrowski combined to go 8-8 in the second overtime to help their team survive.

"We're trying to make history. We want to win the division," Ostrowski said. "That's the goal."

The Vikings led 52-45 with three minutes left in regulation before furious rally No. 1 from the Colonels. Ken Turner made a 3-pointer with 32 seconds left to force overtime.

That was merely the appetizer.

East Lyme led 59-55 with 10.5 seconds left in the first overtime. Ledyard's Devin Rickerson made the first of two free throws. After a timeout, he intentionally missed the second. The rebound went off Ostrowski out of bounds, giving Ledyard possession.

Turner made another three, a wild one from the right baseline, to tie the game and force the second overtime.

"That was amazing," said Ostrowski, who is AAU teammates with Turner on the Hoosiers, coached by former East Lyme coach Dan Spellman.

Ledyard took the lead in the second overtime on Jaiden Bickham's steal and layup, but went more than two minutes without scoring. Gandenberger and Ostrowski made all their free throws.

"It felt like every break went Ledyard's way. But they earned them," East Lyme coach Jeff Bernardi said. "Ken Turner had the game of his life. But it came down to determination for us. We couldn't let freak plays or turnovers get in the way."

East Lyme led 39-29 at halftime, but scored 14 points in the second half thanks to Ledyard's matchup zone. The Colonels, who beat East Lyme with that zone earlier this season, didn't use it until the third period.

"They're long," Bernardi said. "It's tough to play against. But we need to execute better. Sometimes our guys freelance too much."

Ostrowski said, "We're too anxious. I think we're wired to pass the ball and keep it moving and we needed to be more patient."

Trevor Hutchins led the Colonels with 26 points and Rickerson had 20. Turner had nine.

"We had a miscue here and there," Ledyard coach Dave Cornish said. "We're maybe the biggest team in the league and we're giving up too many second chance points. Maybe we should have gone to the zone earlier."

m.dimauro@theday.com