Staff photo / Brian Yauger. Maplewood’s Lexi Yannucci puts up a shot past the defense of Chalker sophomore Kylie Fusselman during the second half of Thursday’s game in Southington.

SOUTHINGTON — With little time to switch gears after a tough battle the night before, the Maplewood girls basketball team wasn’t sure what to expect going into Thursday’s game against Chalker. While beating them convincingly the first time around, this is not the same Wildcats team they topped in December.

Despite that growth and the Rockets’ fatigue, Maplewood did what they needed to do, downing Chalker, 51-25, to cap off the season sweep.

“Chalker’s been playing really well, so we came in not knowing (what to expect),” Maplewood coach Stephanie Pykare said. “We thought maybe it could be a 50-50 game, coming off of a game where we’re really fatigued last night. We highly respect Chalker and what their abilities are. But I was proud of the girls, they came out and they did what they needed to do.

“We looked tired, but good things came. We rebounded the ball really well and played some better pressure man defense in the second half.”

While stifled early by the Wildcats’ tough defense, Claire Urchek and her game-high 19 points helped get the Rockets rolling.

Tatum Hudak led Chalker with 12 points.

Defense has been a hallmark for the Wildcats this season. It’s the first time in coach Rich Hudak’s tenure that his team hasn’t been bitten by the injury bug. With everyone healthy, Chalker 13-6, 8-3 NAC) has played to its full potential.

“We can bring that every single night,” Hudak said. “That’ll travel with us, and whatever we get offensively, we’ll let our defense do our work for us. Everyone buys into that, and that’s kind of what we’ve hung our hat on this year. We’ve found some real nice success, like we’ve been playing hard. Playing well, executing well. I think we found something. It’s just taking us a while because we’ve had a lot of injuries the last couple of years.”

The Rockets are coming off arguably their toughest matchup of the season, going up against Warrensville Heights on Wednesday. While the 57-32 loss snapped an 11-game winning streak dating back to the beginning of January, the game got them better prepared for playing in March, which is exactly what they wanted.

“We wanted to focus last night just on the process of being physical. Not being soft or shying away from contact, wanting to be able to play with the speed of them and learn how to do the small fundamental things,” Pykare said. “You ball fake, you bounce past, you look for the back door cuts. I was proud of them, they didn’t quit.

“We had full-court pressure the entire game. Not easy to handle with an athletic big team. We just wanted to use that to build for the tournament.”

Maplewood brought in an additional assistant coach for the postseason push, one who is no stranger to tournament basketball.

John King, who last coached the Bristol Panthers in their 22-4 district title-winning 2021-22 season, joins the Rockets’ sideline alongside his sister-in-law after years of convincing.

“It’s huge,” Pykare said. “He has a notable reputation, and I have the fortune of being related to him. We’ve been talking to him since he had left Bristol and just wasn’t ready, rightfully so, but he came and has been awesome to have him and just have his insight and wisdom.”

Maplewood’s regular season finale will be a homecoming for its newest coach, as the Rockets (18-3, 9-0 NAC) close the year out on the road against Bristol.

Chalker hosts Ashtabula St. John on Saturday to end its regular season. They open the postseason at home with Heartland Christian.