Groton — In general, the mood among the principals of the top two seeds, New London and Ledyard, was much improved from a year ago, when neither advanced to the Eastern Connecticut Conference boys' basketball championship game, foiling the anticipation leading into the tournament.

"Last year we lost in the semifinals, which was a lot earlier than we hoped," New London High School senior Seth Lake said, his team safely in the league finals after Wednesday night's semifinal win over Windham.

"A lot better mood," Ledyard coach Dave Cornish said, breaking into a grin outside his team's locker room.

Top-seeded New London, tied for second in the latest New Haven Register Top 10 poll, remained unbeaten Wednesday with a 61-53 victory over No. 5 Windham, although not without a late 3-point barrage by Windham which made things a little uncomfortable for the Whalers (21-0).

No. 2 Ledyard, the ninth-ranked team in the state, beat third-seeded Waterford 89-74 behind a career-high 34 points from senior Phyllip Thomas and a 24-9 outburst in the third quarter to increase the Colonels' four-point lead at halftime against the Lancers.

In last year's ECC semifinals, No. 3 Woodstock Academy ended New London's six-year reign as ECC champion with a 62-55 victory, while No. 4 Norwich Free Academy knocked out No. 1 Ledyard 62-57.

"I don't know if you've ever had this, but you know when you're going into the day and you know it's game day?" Ledyard's Thomas said. "I was thinking about this in school the whole day."

"Coming back to the semifinals, we knew we wanted to get to the final," New London's Lake said.

Ledyard (19-3) and New London will meet in the ECC tournament championship game at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Waterford High School.

Both teams came out ahead in what were close games at times.

In the first game of the doubleheader at Fitch, New London took a 22-point lead with 7 minutes, 16 seconds remaining before Windham connected on four straight 3-pointers to pull within 54-44.

The Whippets weren't done yet, either, carving the lead to five before running out of opportunities.

Lake hit both ends of a one-and-one with 46.1 seconds left to boost New London's lead to 60-53 and Collin Sawyer added one more free throw to the final margin.

Windham finished with eight 3-pointers, including four by Joe Santiago (team-high 18 points).

Lake had 20 points and Sawyer 15 for New London.

"It was more than a little run," New London coach Craig Parker said of the Windham rally, led by a pair of 3-pointers from Willie Brown. "It was a great performance by them and we didn't value the basketball. We got very careless.

"We talked about at halftime that Windham has the capability to come back and win a game and that's sort of what happened."

Ledyard, meanwhile, led just 39-34 at halftime after a 9-0 run by Waterford late in the second quarter, capped by a pair of baskets from Landon Peabody, who finished with 25 points for the Lancers (17-5).

Peabody scored again to start the third quarter, pulling the Lancers within 39-37, but Ledyard took off with 10 straight points, including two straight layups by Thomas on the front end of the fast break.

The Colonels' run was facilitated by several Waterford turnovers against Ledyard's press, as well as in the halfcourt set, where Waterford coach Greg Gwudz said the quickness of the Colonels' guards can create havoc.

"We missed layups and they scored quick," said Gwudz, whose team had three players in double figures with Peabody, Kevin Johnson (10) and Isaiah Jones (10).

"That's why they're good. … I think it's the perfect game for us before the state tournament. Our season's not over yet."

DeAnte Bruton had 22 points for Ledyard and Rashan Young 12. Thomas finished with 14 field goals, one from 3-point range, and hit 5 of 6 free throws for his 34 points. He topped Ledyard with 11 points in the first half, nine in the first quarter.

"We had a couple guys on the bench in foul trouble and they sliced into our lead right before the quarter was over," Cornish said. "We talked about we needed to increase the lead.

"… I'm happy for this senior group. I'm happy and proud for this guys. … We've been talking (to Thomas) all year long, 'Be aggressive in the middle. Be aggressive in the middle.' He told me before the game, 'Coach, I'm ready.'"

New London edged Ledyard 72-70 in a regular-season game Jan. 22 at Ledyard, with New London's C.J. Parker, Craig Parker's son, scoring the game-winning layup on a pass from Sawyer with 1.2 seconds remaining.

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