WOBURN – Barred from the Div. 2 state tournament because the MIAA put a one-year postseason ban on the entire school, the Bishop Fenwick girls basketball team was set on using the IAABO Board 27/Comcast Tournament final on Monday as another statement that they’re the division’s top team.

Mission accomplished.

Cecilia Kay dominated the inside with a 26-point, 16-rebound double-double and the Crusaders’ (16-3) stifling defense created havoc in the fourth quarter, holding off top-ranked Medfield, 49-45, in the Richard Antonelli bracket’s final.

The Warriors (19-2) gave a bit of a scare with a pair of late 3-pointers from Tess Baacke (17 points) to pull within one in the final 20 seconds, but Isabella Lopez-Marin stole the ball on Medfield’s next possession to seal it in Bishop Fenwick’s final game of the season.

Both of Medfield’s losses have come to the Crusaders.

“We came out here, we proved we’re the best team in Div. 2,” Kay said. “That’s what our goal was to come here and do because (the MIAA) screwed us over, they screwed our whole school over for something that we had nothing to do with. … Medfield’s ranked No. 1 in the rankings right now, so we came out and we proved – we beat them, we’re better than them, we’re the best team in Div. 2.”

“This was our state championship,” added Bishop Fenwick sophomore Celia Neilson (11 points). “We needed to prove that we’re the best team in Div. 2, so we did that.”

As the Crusaders controlled the paint behind a few unstoppable stretches from Kay, Medfield responded with quality shooting to trade momentum often. Three triples helped the Warriors lead at the end of the first quarter, before Kay’s 11 points in the second anchored a 24-22 Bishop Fenwick advantage at the half.

Bishop Fenwick’s defense mostly took away the perimeter in the second and the start of the third quarters, but a seven-point heater from Mary Palladino (11 points) fueled Medfield in a 9-2 run to close the third with a 36-35 lead.

Kay and Neilson said the team cranked up the energy defensively in the fourth to eventually pull away. Medfield had just one point with five turnovers in the first four minutes of the frame, and didn’t convert a field goal until the final two minutes.

Kay, Kate McPhail, Lopez-Marin and Neilson each scored in an 8-2 run to build a late 45-39 lead in the meantime.

“Felt like (a state final),” said Bishop Fenwick head coach Adam DeBaggis. “I thought our defensive effort (in the fourth quarter), we were playing like a team that wouldn’t allow ourselves to lose. All of them that were out there, so I’m very proud of them.”

Missed free throws from Bishop Fenwick opened the door for a Warriors comeback, with Baacke drilling consecutive 3-pointers to come within a 46-45 deficit. But Caitlin Boyle finished off a fast break layup out of the press to build it to 48-45, and Lopez-Marin’s steal ultimately closed it.

The tournament’s ensuing James Grady final saw the unbeaten Wachusett girls make a similar statement, following up Saturday’s blowout win over Div. 1’s top-ranked Bishop Feehan with a 62-54 win over Div. 3’s top-ranked Foxboro (19-2).

Mountaineers (19-0) senior Mary Gibbons dazzled again by scoring 11 of her game-high 30 points in the third quarter to retake a lead, while sophomore Jaelynn Scott (17 points, 10 rebounds), senior Hannah Best and senior Elizabeth Cain combined to run away with it in an 18-13 fourth.

In the search to take this season to the next level after consecutive losses in the Div. 1 state semifinals, this two-game stretch was meaningful.

“It’s just a great way to almost end the regular season,” Gibbons said. “I’m glad we pulled together at the end.”

“You’ve got to play the best if you want to be the best,” added Wachusett head coach Jim Oxford. “They want that state title, to be able to say it’s theirs. That’s why this tournament’s so good for us.”

Much of the first three quarters was a back-and-forth, led by Gibbons and Foxboro’s tandem of Camryn Collins (18 points, nine rebounds) and Kailey Sullivan (22 points).

Down 31-29 at the break, Gibbons quickly surged to seven points in a 9-0 run to start the third, only for Collins and Sullivan to combine for a 10-2 run to build a 41-40 lead late in the frame. But after Gibbons converted a layup and two free throws as part of a 44-41 lead entering the fourth, it was all Wachusett from there.

Scott, Best and Cain each finished in the paint, and Cain’s and-one layup pushed the lead as high as 54-43. Sullivan scored a quick four points to hang around, but Best, Scott and Gibbons each hit shots to never let the lead get under seven from there.

“I think that just speaks to their determination,” Oxford said. “I start four seniors. You get four 18-year-old women on the floor, determined to do something, it’s hard to stop that. … Once they sense that they’re going to win it, they’re pretty resolute.”

“When I see my teammates getting these baskets, getting these looks, it’s just great when we keep up our lead,” Gibbons added.