It was a good year for girls’ basketball in the FCIAC in terms of there being a group of about half the teams in the league being solid teams, and that created some good competitive balance all season for those aspiring to be conference playoff participants.
An example that deep balance and competitiveness would be that when the semifinal doubleheader of the 2025 FCIAC Girls Basketball Tournament took place at Trumbull High School on Feb. 24, the four teams consisted of a seventh-seeded Trumbull team along with No. 4 seed Staples, No. 3 Fairfield Warde and No. 1 Ridgefield.
When the final buzzer sounded at the end of the FCIAC championship on Feb. 26 at Fairfield University’s Leo Mahoney Arena, it was those top-seeded Ridgefield Tigers who won the school’s sixth FCIAC championship with a 46-38 victory over Fairfield Warde.
Trumbull’s seventh-seeded Eagles shook things up a bit in the Feb. 22 quarterfinals at Staples High School when they stunned No. 2 seed Greenwich with a 14-point victory by the score of 52-38.
This was a victory against a Greenwich Cardinals team which was so good, the Cardinals bounced back by having the deepest run of any conference team in state tournament play in advancing to Class LL semifinals and they ended up being ranked No. 6 as the only FCIAC team ranked in the final Top 10 state poll.
In the three other FCIAC quarterfinal games: No. 3 seed Fairfield Warde beat No. 6 seed Fairfield Ludlowe, 42-36, in their crosstown rivalry game, No. 4 Staples won a good, close battle over No. 5 St. Joseph by a 62-60 margin, and No. 1 Ridgefield defeated No. 8 Stamford, 50-39.
Both semifinal games were close, exciting games. Fairfield Warde won by two points over Trumbull, 45-43, and Ridgefield beat Staples by four points, 42-38.
This was the first year two FCIAC championship basketball games were played at this beautiful modern venue which hosted its first game Nov. 18, 2022, and it was quite the positive outcome that the FCIAC and Fairfield University administrators teamed up to set up the girls/boys’ conference championship doubleheader.
Coach Rob Coloney’s Ridgefield Tigers won the FCIAC championship game, 46-38 over Fairfield Warde, with a balanced scoring attack in which Ava Gernert was the only Tiger who scored in double figures with her 11 points.
Ridgefield junior Sophie Desiano scored nine points, and her solid defense, steady hand and general leadership were also contributing factors toward her receiving the championship game MVP which was awarded to her shortly before tipoff of the FCIAC Boys Basketball Tournament final. Emma Gythfeldt added eight points for the Tigers.
Fairfield Warde veteran coach Dave Danko, who has taken so many of his Mustang teams deep into conference and state tournaments, also had a team with balanced scoring. Sofia Hardiman led Warde with 11 points in the FCIAC final and Juliana Krasniqi, Ava Feay and Peyton McIntosh each scored seven points.
Danko, a 2023 FCIAC Hall of Fame inductee, has won three FCIAC championships and taken his Mustang teams to a state tournament championship game three times.
Danko hit a big milestone when these Fairfield Warde Mustangs delivered him his 500th career victory on their own home court with their 35-34 victory over Trumbull on Jan. 7. And it was another 20-win season for Danko as Fairfield Warde finished 20-5 after going 3-2 in its two postseason tournaments.
Ridgefield and Greenwich both finished the FCIAC season with 14-1 conference records. The Cardinals won 19 of their 20 games in the regular season but their only loss was when the visiting Ridgefield Tigers nipped Greenwich by one point, 41-40. That was the tiebreaker decider which enabled Ridgefield to be the No. 1 seed in the FCIAC Tournament.
Fairfield Warde had the third best FCIAC record of 13-2 to earn the No. 3 seed.
Staples, St. Joseph, and Fairfield Ludlowe all had identical 10-5 records. Staples beat both of those teams to earn the No. 4 seed and St. Joseph’s Cadets grabbed the No. 5 seed via the head-to-head tiebreaker with their 60–57 victory over Fairfield Ludlowe. Trumbull and Stamford both had 9-5 conference records and Trumbull beat Stamford to get the No. 7 seed.
Greenwich, Fairfield Warde, Ridgefield and Stamford all advanced to the second round of the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Girls Basketball Class LL Tournament. Stamford and Ridgefield both won games while Greenwich and Warde each drew a bye in the first round.
Greenwich, Fairfield Warde and Ridgefield advanced to the quarterfinals with victories in the second round. Greenwich defeated Fairfield Warde, 35-32, in the quarterfinals and the Cardinals finished with a 21-3 record after their semifinal loss to Southington, 48-37.
Sacred Heart Academy defeated Southington, 57-47, to win the CIAC Girls Class LL Tournament championship, finish with a 26-2 record, and SHA was unanimously voted No. 1 in the Final 2025 GameTimeCT Girls Basketball Top 10 Poll.
Northwest Catholic, which won the CIAC Class L state championship with a 56-40 victory over Bethel and finished 25-2, was ranked second.
Southington (25-2) was ranked No. 3 and followed by Holy Cross (23-2), Class MM state champion Sheehan (21-6), No. 6 Greenwich (21-3), Class M state champion Bacon Academy (25-2), East Catholic (23-4), Conard (19-5), and Mercy (20-6).
FCIAC champion Ridgefield finished with a 21-5 overall record after going 5-1 in the postseason.
Stamford finished 15-8. Other than Ridgefield, Greenwich, Fairfield Warde and Stamford, the four other FCIAC teams who qualified for both the FCIAC and state Class LL tournaments and ended up with winning overall records included Fairfield Ludlowe (14-8), Trumbull (13-10), St. Joseph (12-10), and Staples (12-11).
When Fairfield Warde advanced to the semifinals of the FCIAC tournament with its 42-36 victory over Fairfield Ludlowe, that was a rubber-match showdown of the two crosstown rivals. Ludlowe won the first game, 46-43, in the Dec. 28 championship game of the Todd Burger Tournament. Warde won the rematch on its home court, 51-45, in the regular season.
Fairfield Warde’s four-year starter Ryanne Gulbin was selected the conference’s Player of the Year as one of the eight players selected to the 2025 All-FCIAC Girls Basketball First Team.
Kate Cimador of Fairfield Ludlowe, Michaela Diamond of Trumbull, Zoe Desmarais of Ridgefield, Zuri Faison of Greenwich, Kaitlyn Fox of Stamford, Gigi Gracia of St. Joseph, and Chloe Smith of Staples were the other seven all-conference first-team selections.
Gulbin, a 5-foot-9 senior guard, made the All-FCIAC First Team for the third consecutive year. Her senior year and fantastic career ended on Feb. 17 when she suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament and torn medial collateral ligament in her knee.
Gulbin surpassed the 1,000th career points milestone and was averaging 21.5 points, 10.7 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 3.8 steal per game when she was injured. She also was selected to the Connecticut High School Coaches Association Girls Basketball Class LL All-State Team and GameTimeCT All-State Girls Basketball Second Team.
Cimador, also a 5-foot-9 senior guard and a repeat selection on the All-FCIAC First Team, completed her wonderful career with multiple school records. This year she averaged 25 points per game on her way to become Fairfield Ludlowe’s all-time leading scorer with 1,105 points, and she also has the school record of 40 points in a game. Cimador was the only FCIAC player selected to the 2025 GametimeCT All-State Girls Basketball First Team.
Faison, Greenwich’s 5-foot-11 freshman center, also made the CHSCA Class LL All-State Team and GameTimeCT All-State Second Team.
Gracia, St. Joseph’s 5-foot-6 senior guard, made the Class LL All-State Team and was GameTimeCT All-State Honorable Mention this year.
The nine players picked to the All-FCIAC Second Team were New Canaan’s Allie Cicia, St. Joseph’s Julia DelRe, Ridgefield’s Ava Gernert, Fairfield Ludlowe’s Hayden McBean, Fairfield Warde’s Peyton McIntosh, Stamford’s Taylor Roncoroni, Brien McMahon’s Jessica Sanchez, Danbury’s Roxane Tweah, and Greenwich’s Madison Utzinger.
The eight players selected to the All-FCIAC Third Team were Freya Harvey of Staples, Wilton’s Rose Bilella, Fairfield Warde’s Ava Feay, Trumbull’s Carley Johnston, Ridgefield’s Jalynn Presley, Danbury’s Chloe Trimandilis, and Greenwich’s Elsa Xhekaj.
Greenwich coach Megan Wax was named the 2025 FCIAC Coach of the Year.