Mohegan — Stonington sophomore Rory Risley stood on the Mohegan Sun Arena basketball court on Tuesday night, holding an MVP plaque at her side, trying to put into words what she and her teammates had just accomplished.

“It’s crazy how we came from the bottom and now we’re here at the top,” Risley said following the fifth-seeded Bears’ 40-31 win over defending champion Windham in the Eastern Connecticut Conference Division II girls’ basketball tournament final.

“It’s amazing.”

Stonington dropped to 2-8 after enduring a 78-28 beating at the hands of Bacon Academy on Jan. 17.

Thirty-five days later the Bears are division champions.

“We didn’t have any confidence,” Stonington senior MacKenzie Pettegrow said. “We had a completely new team. We didn’t know how to play with each other.”

Risley had 16 points, 10 rebounds and 2 blocks to earn MVP honors for the Bears (12-11).

“I don’t know of too many teams that starts at the bottom (like) we started and were able to pull through like that,” Stonington coach Paulla Solar said. “Typically, you have good teams and they just get better and better but we had some tough growth, losing to a lot of teams, and it was a hard sell.”

Sophomore Emily Obrey had 14 points and 8 rebounds for Stonington while Pettegrow added 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals. Both earned all-tournament honors.

“We needed to be more tough, to be tougher,” Solar said about the team’s rough start. “We can be as good as anybody, but we’ve got to be tough and I talked about that. ... Our saying is ‘Pain is temporary. Regret is forever.’ And I talked to them before the game that you have to put it all out on the floor so that you don’t have a regret to live with.”

Pettegrow said, “As the season went on we were able to learn each other’s strengths and weaknesses in practice and really based our game off of that.”

The Bears’ key strength — their interior game led by sophomore Katelyn Cadmus (5 points, 6 rebounds), Obrey and most especially the 6-foot Risley.

“She’s big but she’s skilled,” Windham head coach Robert Mangual said. “Risley is a great player.”

Stonington and the Whippets split their regular-season series. Mangual pointed out another skill that the Bears had improved on since then.

“Their press breaker wasn’t as good as it is now,” Mangual said. “Paulla did a great job with them. When we pressed them they were under control and they controlled the ball.”

Pettegrow handled the bulk of the ball-handling for the Bears.

“They have (Risley) that’s 6 feet,” Mangual said. “Our biggest girl is 5-8. We can’t match up with something like that.”

Sophomore Alyssa Lebiszczak had 8 points and 6 rebounds for second-seeded Windham (14-9) while junior Hailey Flores had 7 points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals. Both made the all-tournament team.

Stonington led 17-15 at halftime and began using its size to pull away in the third quarter. It scored all their points either inside or at the free throw line to go ahead 31-20 headed into the fourth.

The Bears led 37-24 with 2:42 remaining when the Whippets made a late run. Two Lebiszczak free throws cut their deficit to 37-31 with 39.8 seconds left.

Pettegrow iced the game with two free throws moments later, causing Solar to raise her arms in the air and look upward after her team had missed their previous five attempts.

“It’s insane,” Pettegrow said. “I never thought that we’d be here tonight.

“Now we’re here and we won, so it’s pretty amazing.”

n.griffen@theday.com