It’s madness in March and the Greens Farms Academy girls basketball team keeps making history.
The Dragons improved their school-record win total to 23 on Wednesday night, posting a 58-54 win over Ethel Walker in an NEPSAC Class C quarterfinal played inside the Coyle Gym.
With the win the team advances to what is believed to be the program’s first-ever appearance in a New England semifinal on Saturday.
“It’s pretty awesome,” senior captain Elyse Kimball said postgame. “I was saying to [GFA Coach Jen Harris] that we’ve never played in March before. The gym is so light. It’s weird.”
It’s March Madness, Dragon style, and their come-from-behind win over the Walker Wildcats was proof of that.
The defense gave up 34 points in the first half, but held Walker’s to just 20 points in the second half to notch the win.
“We played a great game,” Harris said. “We had some highs and lows, but the highs out-weighed the lows. We hit some big shots and some big times. It’s a great feeling.”
After getting dominated inside in the first half, the Dragons upped the ante in the third quarter by throwing a press at the Wildcats.
“It created a lot of havoc and we were able to score off of it,” Harris said. “We got (Walker) to take the shots we wanted them to take. It was the difference I think.”
Allie Palmieri netted a team-high 22 points in the win while eighth grader Sheridan Oberhand netted 18, 10 of which came in the second quarter when GFA scored 14 points.
“I just feel like the team is trusting me more and I’ve gotten a lot more confident over the season,” Oberhand said. “Everybody’s been really positive and we just had the mindset that we had to step up and win. We wanted to keep going so we had to step up and win.”
Georgia Grabowski added nine points while LyNeta Brand chipped in with seven more as GFA improved to 23-3 on the season.
For Kimball, the team’s lone senior, the madness has been amazing.
“It means everything to keep this going,” she said. “It’s my last season of playing anything at GFA and it’s amazing to end it like this."
The girls next take on Dexter Southfield School (Brookline, MA) on their court at 2 p.m. on Saturday.