Thursday, October 1, 2026
Freeport’s tenacious defense proved to be too much for Farmingdale to handle.
Madison Harris scored a game-high 15 points and fellow sophomore Sabrina Ligonde added eight as third-seeded Freeport advanced to the semifinals of the Nassau Class AAA girls’ basketball tournament with a convincing 53-27 victory over No. 6 Farmingdale Wednesday evening.
Junior Madison Starks added seven points and junior Shaniyah Bonny chipped in six for the Red Devils (17-4), who will face second-seeded Syosset in the semifinals at Farmingdale State College on March 1. The Braves beat Freeport 53-30 on Dec. 9.
“We were really focusing on shutting them down defensively because their defense is really good and we weren’t sure how much we would be able to score,” Freeport head coach Meredith Jones said. “Our defense led to our offense.”
Freshman Izzy Aristy had all six Daler points in the first half and 10 of their 17 through three quarters before finishing with 12. Kaitlyn Quinn had six in her final varsity game for Farmingdale (10-8), which has lost four straight postseason games since 2019.
Freeport had the only two field goals in the first quarter on Harris’ basket from down low that opened the scoring and Bonny’s 3-pointer that made it 7-2 with 1:36 left. The Dalers were constantly harassed by the Red Devils’ double-teaming and missed all four of their attempts from the field while committing four traveling violations that resulted in a 9-4 deficit through the first eight minutes.
“We knew that coming in here was going to be a struggle,” Farmingdale head coach Dave Stein said. “They’re a very good defensive team. They force you to play at a speed that we’re not comfortable playing in, so we knew that was going to be the challenge going in.”
The Red Devils started to pull away by outscoring Farmingdale 16-2 in the second quarter. Ligonde converted a nice pass from Ja’Niyah Eady with 4:54 left and Harris added a three-point play and a conversion off an inbound pass to push Freeport’s advantage to 12 with 3:15 left.
Aristy’s jumper from the right side with 2:33 remaining was the first and only Daler field goal of the first half, but Freeport recorded the last nine points in the second that made it 25-6.
“We chilled out with the fouling,” Harris said. “We calmed down and then just filled in the spots. It was the group. When we started seeing each other, that’s when it started going in.”
Farmingdale shot 1-for-13 in the first half and missed all four of its 3-point attempts.
“Any time you come in here, we always joke around that the first team to 20 is going to win because we’re both pretty good defensive teams,” Stein said.
The Red Devils continued to turn up the heat with a 15-5 run to start the third quarter, which was ignited by baskets from Ligonde and Harris on Freeport’s first two possessions. Quinn’s 3-pointer and two more foul shots by Aristy brought the Dalers to within 29-11 with 5:18 remaining, but the Red Devils scored 11 straight points over the next three-plus minutes to put the game out of reach.
Freeport swept the two games between the teams, also winning 40-27 at home on Jan. 10.
