Bacon Academy advances to Class M title game

It may have taken place on a larger stage, but the script changed little and that was bad news for Windham.
The Whippets – as they had on their home floor and as they had in Colchester in previous losses to Bacon – played well in the first half and actually held the lead going into the second half. But as it has in the previous two encounters, the third eight-minute dance proved to be the decisive one and it was dominated by the Bobcats.
As a result, Bacon advanced to its first Class M state championship game since 2001 with a 59-50 win at Central Connecticut State University Saturday over their Eastern Connecticut Conference rivals.
The top-seeded team in the M Division will now play third-seeded Berlin for the state championship at the Mohegan Sun Arena next weekend at a time to be determined. Berlin advanced with a 54-41 win over Ellington on Saturday.
"Our kids showed a lot of guts," Bacon coach Dave Shea said. "They showed that they have character and can come from behind, keep their spirit up and keep working hard."
The Bobcats trailed, 30-26, going into the second half but knew one important thing.
"The third quarter wins games," Bacon senior Brooke Bailey said.
The Bobcats (24-2) wasted little time tying the game up as Katie Mahoney followed up a McKenzie Hyde miss to make it a two-point game. After Dominique Demar blocked a Windham attempt on the other end, Hyde followed up her own missed shot to tie the game at 30.
The senior forward was held to three points in the first half, part of that due to the fact that she had picked up her second foul with 2 ½ minutes left in the first quarter.
"It was frustrating, but I just kept my head in the game and tried to stay composed on defense," Hyde said.
Since she failed to pick up her third infraction in the first half, Hyde was able to play more aggressively in the second and had another putback to complete a 9-0 Bacon run to open the second half.
Windham (20-6) did tie the game on a three-point play by Amie Toner (14 points, 14 rebounds), but Katie Mahoney hit five of the next seven points and Hyde - who finished with a game-high 21 points and 10 rebounds- followed that with six consecutive points to give Bacon the 46-37 lead going into the final quarter.
"We talked about that at halftime," Windham coach Ken Valliere said. "We had been in that position before- been ahead of them at halftime- but we had to go out and play a good 16 minutes and it was what, 20-7(in the third quarter); it’s an uphill battle from there."
Bacon also switched up the defenses as Shea elected to go man-to-man in the first half which produced a lot of open looks for sophomore guard Ali Risley. She took advantage of those to drop four 3-pointers on the Bobcats. Those looks went away in the second half when Bacon went back to its traditional 2-3 zone and extended it.
"It’s kind of funny to go into a zone after Risley was hitting all those shots, but we’re pretty good in that 2-3 zone and extend out to the wings really well," Shea said.
"My teammates were really good kicking it out in the first half, but in the second half they got out on me more- maybe, I should have moved around more," said Risley who finished with those 12 points as she didn’t score after the first quarter.
"They’re big across the baseline and (Shea’s) crazy to play man-to-man against us, I don’t know why he did that in the first half" Valliere said. "We penetrate the zone pretty good, but they swallow us up."
The Whippets had a run left in them late in the fourth quarter as Danyelle Rodriguez went baseline for two and, after two missed Bacon free throws, hit a 3-pointer with 51 seconds left to cut the deficit to four, 54-50. The Bobcats finished things from the free throw line where Mary Corrado and Bailey both sank a pair and Hyde added one with 22 seconds left to send the Bobcats into the championship game.
"I know the coaches know about them," Mahoney said when asked about Berlin. "Right now, I’m just so happy we won and we have a week to prepare."
"Berlin has a really tall girl (Katelyn Zarotney), she’s like Amie (Toner) on the boards," Hyde said. "I’ve played AAU with her and we just have to box her out."
Bacon has never won a state title game as it lost in 2001 to Plainville in the Class M final and fell to Westbrook in a Class S championship game in 1979.