Mohegan — New London senior Zanashia Croft believed that her team needed to increase its intensity after the first quarter of Tuesday night's Eastern Connecticut Conference Division I girls' basketball final.

Croft helped supercharge the second-seeded Whalers' attack in the second quarter as they scored 17 unanswered points and went on to beat top-seeded Bacon Academy, 66-55, at Mohegan Sun Arena.

The two-game attendance was 1,375.

New London led 19-18, with 4 minutes, 58 left in the second quarter.

The Whalers proceeded to go on an 17-0 run and go ahead, 36-18, with 1:27 left in the first half.

Croft had as many steals that quarter as Bacon had field goals (four) and scored nine of her 11 points. She finished with six steals, too.

“We just needed to boost up our intensity,” Croft said. “I wanted to jump the gaps. I wanted to be as intense as possible to get the steals to lead us to transition (baskets), to lead us to scoring. I just wanted us to be more uplifted with our defense; be way more aggressive.”

Junior Nalyce Dudley scored 15 of her 25 points in the first half and added 10 rebounds to earn all-tournament MVP honors for New London (19-3). Freshman Serenity Lancaster (13 points, seven rebounds) and senior Olivia Goode (11 points) joined Dudley on the all-tournament team.

It was the fourth ECC tournament title in six seasons for the Whalers. They won three straight from 2017-19.

It was the first conference loss of the season for the Bobcats (20-3). Senior Valerie Luizzi (25 points) and junior Marissa Nudd (19 points, nine rebounds) both made the all-tournament team for Bacon.

Bacon had won the only regular season meeting between the two teams, 53-45, on Jan. 3. Dudley missed that game due to illness.

Nudd’s putback cut the Bobcats’ deficit to 19-18 with 5:48 left in the second quarter when New London took the game by the throat.

Dudley had a putback followed by a steal and coast-to-coast layup by Croft. Goode pulled up in the lane for a short jumper and another Croft steal led to a transition layup by Dudley to increase the Whalers lead to 27-18 with over 3 minutes left in the first half.

Bacon coach John Shea called timeout to try to break up New London’s momentum. It didn’t work.

Dudley was fouled on a layup but missed her free throw. No matter as Lancaster grabbed the offensive rebound to set up Croft’s jumper.

Dudley’s steal led to a Croft three. The latter followed with her fourth steal of the quarter and a layup to push the Whalers’ lead to 36-18 with 1:27 remaining in the first half.

“You have to have a mindset, an aggressive mindset,” Croft said when asked what makes a good defender. “You have to be the one to be more intense all the time. You have to work hard. You have to sprint through. You have to do what you want.”

New London head coach Tammy Millsaps said about Croft, “What we’ve talked about with her all year, she’s going to contribute in a lot of ways. You know she can distribute the ball, but one thing she does well is she has instincts on the ball.

“She can get her hands on the ball. She can get deflections. She can shoot through the passing lanes. That’s something that’s been a challenge for her but she’s learning that in order for her to get some easy layups and some easy points, she had to defend.”

Bacon’s Emily Ferrigno made the first of two free throws with 56.9 seconds left to finally break up New London’s run. Nudd followed with a layup.

Lancaster made a shot at the buzzer to give the Whalers a 38-21 halftime lead.

New London shot an absurd 71.4 percent (10 of 14) from the floor in the second quarter. Bacon shot 22.2 percent (4 of 18) and turned it over seven times.

n.griffen@theday.com