Montville - It was a game that was termed as "weird" by the winning coach.

St. Bernard High School's girls' basketball team defeated Lyman Memorial 53-45 on Thursday in the first round of the Eastern Connecticut Conference tournament. It was the third matchup of the season between the ECC Small Division foes, which split during the regular season.

St. Bernard, the eighth seed in the tournament, led 7-1. Then the Saints trailed 13-10 after the first quarter. Then St. Bernard went on a 28-7 surge to lead by 18 in the third quarter.

"Then it was a struggle after that," St. Bernard coach Mike Nystrom said. "They were pressing us and diving after everything. We hung on."

Casey Sullivan had 24 points, including 5 3-pointers for St. Bernard (14-7), which goes on to play No. 1 Plainfield in the quarterfinals at 4 p.m. Saturday at Norwich Free Academy.

Kayla Paris added 12 points, eight rebounds and five assists and St. Bernard went 10-for-13 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter, including 4-for-4 by Nora Sternloff.

Alyson Tacchi had 12 points and Chelsey Hussey 11 for No. 9 Lyman Memorial (12-9).

Other quarterfinal games Saturday are No. 2 Waterford vs. No. 7 Ledyard, noon; No. 3 Bacon Academy vs. No. 6 East Lyme, 2 p.m.; and No. 4 Montville vs. No. 5 NFA, 6 p.m.

In other games:

• Jenna Schumacher scored 25 points, including five 3-pointers, as East Lyme beat Fitch 66-40 in the first round of the ECC tournament. Michelle Lagrotteria had 11 points and five steals, Allison Stoddard eight points and 10 assists and Rebecca McGlone and Carynn Bartolucci nine points each for East Lyme (14-6). The Vikings led 33-21 at halftime. Lexus Foster had 11 points and Aunisha Dillon 10 for Fitch (11-10).

• Marion Philippe had 12 points, seven rebounds and four assists in Williams School's 55-25 loss to Lincoln, R.I. Capri DeBiccari added 10 points, eight rebounds and four blocked shots for Williams (4-11).

Boys' basketball

• Darnay Gray scored 18 points to lead five players in double figures as Ledyard topped Griswold 75-53. Nakai Northup had 15 points for the Colonels (14-5), Thomas Whipple 12 and Khary Childs and Chris Gill 10 each. Tim Martineck finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds for Griswold (7-11).

• Corbin Corrigan had 10 points and Tyler Post eight in Wheeler's 92-37 loss to Windham. Windham led 61-17 at halftime. Wheeler is 2-17.

Gymnastics

• Hope Rezendes finished third all-around for Stonington, tying for second in the floor exercise, in a 138.25-129.95 loss to Hand of Madison. Abbey Contino was third in the vault and Reanna Banker tied for third on the floor for Stonington (7-10).

H.S. riflery

• Nicole Ladd's 188 led Grasso Tech to a 915-822 win over Montville. Other top scorers for Grasso (8-2) were Grant Buttermore (187), Santino Francischelli (187), David Gauthier (178) and Brandon McNulty (174). Eric Sloan led Montville (0-8) with 192, Juan Paches had 166, Nate Zawacki had 155, Charlie Kenney had 155 and John Coggshall had 154.

Grasso's Brandon McNulty, Gauthier and Ladd and Montville's Sloan had perfect scores in the prone position.

H.S. hockey

• Denzel Dickerson scored three goals in St. Bernard-NFA-Bacon Academy's 6-3 victory over Branford on Wednesday. Joey Mitchell, Jason Steele and Blake Biancamano also had a goal and an assist each in the win, in which St. Bernard-NFA-Bacon (3-2) scored three unanswered goals in the second period to lead 5-1. Jonah Beauton made 33 saves in goal.

Men's basketball

• Rodney Sanders scored 25 points, 19 in the first half, in St. Thomas More's 87-65 victory over Rise Academy. Ky Howard had 12 points and nine rebounds and Torin Childs-Harris 11 points for St. Thomas More (26-6).