Norwich — Kara Beaupre, Montville High School senior, got elbowed in the ribs late in Tuesday night's game, then fouled out. Beaupre took a little walk in the area adjacent to the Montville bench as time wound down and wept.

That's how much the landscape of the Indians' girls' basketball program has changed this season, from records of 2-18, 5-15 and 6-14 the last three years to the Eastern Connecticut Conference Division II championship game in front of a packed house at Norwich Free Academy.

No. 5 Windham topped Montville 39-28.

"It's an important game," Beaupre said. "My senior year. We made it all the way to the championship. This was a really special game for me. We've never made it this far in a really long time. This is a really special team.

"I'm proud of all the girls."

Montville (14-9) got to the championship game by avenging regular-season losses to Killingly and Plainfield in the ECC tournament. The Indians lost twice to Plainfield this year before posting a 47-32 semifinal win Saturday behind 13 points and 23 rebounds from freshman Maya Hillman.

Against Windham, however, the Indians first had to stop the 3-point shot of Ady Gonzalez, who made four of them for the Whippets in the first half. Windham led 18-13 at halftime, getting five 3s in all.

Then, once Montville had Gonzalez contained, Most Outstanding Player Ceci Hunter took over for Windham, finishing with 12 points, seven in the decisive third quarter.

The Whippets stretched the lead to 30-21 after three and led by as many as 13 points on a putback by Hunter in the fourth.

Hillman had seven points, 18 rebounds and four blocked shots to lead Montville, sharing the Indians' scoring lead with Haley Kerwin.

Hillman and Kerwin made the all-tournament team along with Windham's Hunter, Gonzalez (14 points) and Nicole Peralta (8 points).

Windham (16-7) reached the championship game with a 39-36 upset of top-seeded Putnam in the semifinals.

"We knew what they had," said Montville coach Becky Alfonso, whose team lost to Windham 40-17 on Jan. 8. "We started with a box-and-one (on Gonzalez), but our rotations weren't great. They get shots off really quick.

"They have two weapons, three actually. (Hunter) is tough to defend. It's a good team. That's what I just told the girls. You take someone out of the equation, someone else has to step up and she did. ... Just to get here we had to beat two teams that beat us in the regular season.

"This (atmosphere) was good for us to see."

v.fulkerson@theday.com