Montville — The Lyman Memorial girls’ basketball team posed for photos for family and friends following Monday night’s game.

And more photos.

And more photos.

Just when senior Kassidy LaTour thought it was all done, she was beckoned over to have even more pictures taken of her and her teammates.

“I hate having my picture taken,” LaTour said with a smile.

It was a special occasion for LaTour, fellow senior Taylor Pankowski and the rest of the Bulldogs, though, as they knocked off St. Bernard 56-33 to clinch the Eastern Connecticut Conference Division IV title/

It was the program’s first division title since 2016.

“(It’s a) very big deal,” LaTour said about winning the division. “It’s crazy to think that we went from being little, tiny freshmen to winning a division.

“Winning it with Taylor, too, we had a lot of freshmen (on the team) when we were freshmen but they all moved on, so it’s good to win it with her.”

It was the second time in five days that Lyman (12-5, 6-0) beat the Saints, the defending Division IV champion. The Bulldogs finished 10-10 last season in their first season with head coach David Lopez.

“We had a brand-new team coming in last year,” LaTour said. “We had a lot of freshmen including Jenny (Lopez), Juliana (Haynes) and Phoebe (Carpenter) who are a big part of our team. … We had a lot to work with.

“We have more motivation this year.”

Jenny Lopez played a big role on Monday having been hindered by foul trouble in last Thursday’s 39-37 win over St. Bernard. She had 15 points, six assists and five steals the second time around against the Saints.

“She’s very, very impressive,” LaTour said. “I think I was point guard freshman year, or Taylor was, and it was pretty bad. We both don’t have ballhandling (skills). She works on it every day and it’s been really helpful to the team.”

Carpenter had 13 points and 12 rebounds, LaTour had nine points and six rebounds and Pankowski scored nine.

Angelica Tompkins had 18 points and seven rebounds for St. Bernard (9-8, 5-2) and freshman Morghan Kuhn had nine rebounds.

“We’ve played four games now in seven days,” Saints head coach Mike Nystrom said. “Maybe it’s taken its toll, I don’t know. Obviously, we didn’t have our best game but give credit to Lyman. They played great and they deserve it.”

St. Bernard took an early 7-2 lead 3 minutes, 30 seconds left in the game when Lyman took control.

Bulldogs junior Kelsey Dunnack made a 3-pointer to tie the game and Lopez followed by going coast-to-coast for a layup to put her team ahead for good, 11-9, with 2:44 left in the quarter.

Lopez scored six when the Bulldogs opened the second half with an 8-0 run to go ahead, 36-16.

“Not too bad,” David Lopez said about his team going from 10-10 to winning a division title. “We’re just going to keep working and continue to try and build the program from here.”

n.griffen@theday.com