Wallingford — Nalyce Dudley was not going to let the New London’s season, her senior season, end in the state quarterfinals.

Not again. Uh-uh.

The Whalers trailed Sheehan by six points with over five minutes left in a CIAC Class MM girls’ basketball quarterfinal on Monday night, almost a year to the day when they were knocked out of last year’s Class LL quarterfinals.

Dudley had enough and put on a sensational performance that’s expected from one of the state’s best players.

Dudley scored 13 straight points to put the Whalers ahead for good and finished with 28 points as sixth-seeded New London scraped past No. 3 Sheehan, 47-41.

“I was up but my team, I could sense (they were down),” Dudley said. “As a leader, I’m just like, ‘I’ve got to take over.’”

Dudley converted a three-point play to cut New London’s deficit to 36-33 with 5 minutes, 12 seconds left.

“I told my teammates (during that timeout). ... ‘It’s going to be a dogfight,” Dudley said. “‘We’ve just got to push through it, and I know, I know, we’ve got a lot of fight in us still.’

“I’m not going home like this.”

New London (19-6) will play No. 7 Wolcott in Friday’s semifinals at a site and time to be announced. The Eagles beat No. 18 Berlin in their quarterfinal, 45-30.

Dudley added seven rebounds and five steals for the Whalers (19-6) and scored all of their field goals in the fourth.

UConn head coach Geno Auriemma used to say, “We’ve got Diana and you don’t.”

“We had Nalyce and you didn’t,” New London head coach Tammy Millsaps said. “That’s the bottom line. ... She just took over the game.”

Serenity Lancaster had nine points, 10 rebounds and five blocks for New London while freshman Nyarah Dudley added five points, three rebounds and two steals.

Freshman Megan Wresien had 15 points, four rebounds and three assists for the Titans (17-7).

The Whalers lost to eventual champion East Hartford, 61-47, in last year’s Class LL quarterfinals on March 7. Nalyce Dudley had 32 points and eight rebounds in that loss.

“I wrote it down as my goal at the beginning of the season and I look at it every day — win states,” Dudley said.

Freshman Susan Hotaling made a layup to give the Titans a 36-30 lead with 6:24 left in the game.

Sheehan didn’t score again for over four minutes. And Dudley took over.

Dudley went coast-to-coast for a layup to cut New London’s deficit to a point. She made two free throws moments later to put her team ahead, 37-36, with 4:17 left in the game.

Dudley drove for another basket with 2:31 left to push the Whalers ahead, 39-36.

Titans junior Olivia Cassesse tied the game with a three 15 seconds later.

Dudley answered with a layup.

Sheehan freshman Jenna Wresien tied the game up at 41 with a layup with 1:14 remaining and had a chance to put her team ahead with a free throw. She missed it.

Dudley came back at the Titans with yet another layup to put New London ahead to stay with 51.5 seconds left.

“She just made up her mind — ‘I’m driving to the basket,’” Millsaps said. “‘If I run over y’all, I run over y’all because the rest of y’all ain’t doing nothing else.’”

Nyarah Dudley and Lancaster closed the game out with two free throws each.

“Her energy allowed us as a team, as a whole, to kind of get ourselves back in the game,” Millsaps said about Nalyce Dudley, “but that’s what you expect from a leader, from a kid who has potential to be a state player of the year.”

n.griffen@theday.com