East Hartford — It was a game which meant not one iota — a nonleague game on what was an otherwise sleepy Saturday afternoon — except to both coaches and every player on the court, apparently.

And so an otherwise innocuous matchup between Class LL teams Norwich Free Academy, ranked second in the GameTimeCT state poll, and East Hartford was played with the fervor of a state tournament game.

East Hartford, behind 22 points, 12 rebounds and four steals from sophomore Shailyn Pinkney, a Class LL all-state pick a year ago, finished with a 54-38 victory over NFA, winner of 12 straight games coming in but playing Saturday without 6-foot senior center Makayla Poirier-Vaughters due to a concussion.

"This game is so important to learn," NFA coach Courtney Gomez said of the matchup. "It shows us a little bit of humility and it shows us that we need to have people step up in certain situations. Anajah Ingram did that today — she showed some maturity, some aggressive play.

"But we have to be ready. I have to be ready to get them ready against a team that's well coached, against a team that scouted us, against a team that knew everything we were going to do. East Hartford is (10-7), but it's a (10-7) that's not indicative of how good they are."

East Hartford led 11-2 after the first quarter and 23-8 at halftime.

Without Poirier-Vaughters down low, East Hartford 6-2 center Jaida Robinson dominated, finishing with 18 points and 10 rebounds, 14 points in the second half.

And although NFA played a much better second half, pulling within nine points after three quarters, it couldn't solve East Hartford enough to whittle the lead any further than that.

The Hornets led 36-27 at the end of three, but NFA missed a pair of free throws to start the fourth quarter. Robinson then sank both ends of a one-and-one for East Hartford. NFA's Jada Mills drove to the hoop to pull the Wildcats back to 38-29 and Robinson hit two more free throws.

The final time NFA got back within nine, on a putback by Ingram, East Hartford's Legacy Jackson hit a 3-pointer from the right corner. Pinkney tacked on a three-point play after that and the Hornets pushed the lead to 48-33 with 4 minutes, 14 seconds left to play.

"I scheduled this game for this type of test," said East Hartford coach Matt Rondinone, who admitted to scouting NFA several times prior to Saturday's matchup. "I have a lot of respect for NFA. Being in that gym the other night (at NFA), it was the epitome of high school basketball.

"Just our competitive juices ... our willingness not to lose. We have this buzz going right now. Earlier in the year we were looking for an identity. We told them, 'Just be tenacious.' That's the type of defense we play."

Rondinone called Pinkney's performance a "footprint on Connecticut basketball."

Gomez wasn't disagreeing.

"A kid like No. 21 (Pinkney), she can really dominate a game," Gomez said.

Gomez is expecting Poirier-Vaughters to be available by the end of next week, she said, meaning she'll miss Tuesday's ECC Division I matchup against Woodstock Academy. That is the possible division clincher for the Wildcats, who are tied with New London atop the league standings.

Gomez said she told her players that the 12 straight wins since falling to New London on Jan. 4 have had them on "almost this rainbow cloud."

"Yes, we have been playing well. We have been playing better," Gomez said. "But I've been so stressed. Any time you have some success, you overlook the things you need to get better at.

"... Credit to East Hartford 100%. They came out ready to defend us. We didn't handle the press they threw at us really well. We did show some fight, absolutely. But it's so hard to overcome a deficit like that. We tried some things, but we couldn't get it under 10 or so."

Mills and point guard Jenissa Varela each had nine points, Ingram had eight and Bella Graziano hit a pair of third-quarter 3-pointers for NFA. 

v.fulkerson@theday.com