Bacon Bobcats take ECC championship

Sara Rogers reaches for a ball held by Claire Tocheny. Photos by Melanie Savage.

Going into the Eastern Connecticut Conference semifinal game against East Lyme, Bacon Coach Dave Shea expressed respect for his opponent. “It’s a very good team,” he said. “They beat NFA to get here. I’m just hoping we can have a good competitive game and play well.”

The undefeated Bobcats did play well –very well—and took home an easy 67-32 victory. “The breaks went our way tonight,” said Shea. Of granddaughter Katie Mahoney’s performance (top scorer against East Lyme with 25 points) “She’s scrappy as hell,” said Shea. Asked about Mahoney’s chances for breaking the existing Bacon scoring record “Knowing Katie, I don’t think she really cares,” said Shea. “She’s very quiet and hard-working. She just wants to go out there and play well for her team.”

Sarah Straker produced 12 points against East Lyme, and Kelly Dixon had 10.

The Bobcats took on the Windham Whippets on Feb. 25 in the final round of the ECC tournament. Windham entered the game with an 18-3 record, having lost to Bacon twice already this year. Both games were close; on Dec. 17 Bacon won by a final score of 61-57, and on Jan. 28 the final was 64-60. On paper, the teams looked fairly even. Windham had an average points-per-game record of 59.3 to Bacon’s 61.9. Windham was allowing an average of 38.2 points per game to Bacon’s 36.3.

But Bacon took control of the final early, leading Windham in the first quarter by as many as 16 points. Windham fought hard, several times coming within 2 points of Bacon as the game progressed. But with a final score of 57-46, the Bobcats finally succeeded in taking home a conference championship, the first for the team.

High scorers for the final were Katie Mahoney (25 points) and Kelly Dixon (18 points).

With a record of 20-0, Bacon has earned a bye for the first round of the state tourney. They were scheduled to host round two on March 3. If the Bobcats advance, the quarterfinal round will be held at Bacon on March 7, beginning at 7 p.m. For a full listing of tourney brackets, go to www.casciac.org.