There is a little more in the way of parity starting to develop in the Eastern Connecticut Conference in girls basketball.
It's true that no Small Division team will be involved in Saturday's quarterfinal games at Plainfield High but it doesn't mean they didn't give the larger schools a work out in the play down games on Thursday night.
Montville had to survive a game of tempo against Tourtellotte as the Tigers had things going exactly the way they had wanted until halfway through the third quarter. Nikkia Smith went on a six point roll and two 3-pointers by Caitlin Quinn and Nichole Delaney essentially shut the door on the Tigers who had tied the game at 11 at the beginning of the third quarter.
The Putnam Clippers had lost by 23 points in their first meeting with East Lyme at the beginning of the season. No Carly Thibault on the Viking side changed the equation a bit on Thursday night as the Clippers rallied to make it close, losing 36-31, after trailing 18-9 at the half.
St. Bernard hung in with Bacon until the final quarter when the Bobcats went on an 11-2 run to post a 15-point victory. Lyman, the sixth seed, did have their troubles with a very athletic Fitch team which is better than their 11th seed implies. Aubrey Latham put down 32 points, countering a 33-point effort by Lyman's Kailee Grasso, as the Falcons outscored the Bulldogs 72-60.
That does leave some interesting matchups for Saturday.
Fitch will need all the athleticism it can muster as Windham has plenty of that commodity as well. The two meet at noon.
Bacon gets a match up against Norwich Free Academy at 2 p.m. while Montville and Stonington clash in what could be a very entertaining game at 4 p.m.
East Lyme and Waterford, who have got to know each other pretty well over the past couple of weeks, meet again at 6 p.m. tomorrow.