The greatest season ever for Greenwich High School was the major highlight of the 2025-26 girls’ basketball season in the FCIAC.
Coach Megan Wax’s 25-2 Cardinals ended their season with a 15-game winning streak, culminating with the program’s first state championship after they won the FCIAC championship, and Greenwich was ranked No. 1 in the final state poll for the first time ever.
Other highlights for the conference included Staples being ranked sixth in the final state poll after advancing to the FCIAC championship game and then the semifinals of the Division II state tournament, and there were many players who received multiple postseason honors by being selected to all-conference and all-state teams.
Greenwich was the unanimous choice for No. 1 in the Final GametimeCT Top 10 Girls Basketball Poll after its 51-46 victory over previous No. 1-ranked Northwest Catholic in the 2026 Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Girls Basketball Division I Tournament championship game.
Zuri Faison had a fantastic sophomore season, and she certainly stepped up and came up big in both the FCIAC and state championship games.
The 6-foot forward was selected the tournament MVP after she fired in 27 points to lead the top-seeded Cardinals to a 65-49 victory over second-seeded Staples in the 2026 FCIAC Girls Basketball Tournament championship game on March 4 at Fairfield University’s Leo D. Mahoney Arena.
Madi Utzinger, Greenwich’s 5-foot-8 senior guard, scored 22 points and Mikayla Kiernan had nine points for the conference champions.
Chloe Smith scored 22 points and Freya Harvey had 19 to lead Staples.
In the FCIAC tournament semifinals: Harvey scored 16 points and Smith scored 14 to lead Staples to a 53-41 victory over sixth-seeded Stamford, while Faison scored 15 points and Kiernan added 10 points in Greenwich’s 36-31 victory over No. 5 Fairfield Warde.
In the quarterfinals of the conference tournament: Greenwich defeated No. 8 St. Joseph, 49-37; Staples beat No. 7 Ridgefield, 52-36; Stamford advanced to the semifinals with a 42-31 victory over No. 3 Trumbull, and Warde beat No. 4 Danbury, 47-37.
Coach Tommy Sparks’ Staples Wreckers finished with a very good 23-4 record after they won three games in the Division II state tournament before they were eliminated by eventual champion Bristol Central, 67-62, in the semifinals. Sparks was later named the FCIAC Coach of the Year.
Several Greenwich Cardinals played very well in their 51-46 victory over an excellent Northwest Catholic team in the Division I state tournament championship game on the Saturday of March 21 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville.
Faison delivered a strong performance yet again when she more than held her own against Abby Caster, Northwest Catholic’s great 6-foot senior forward who came into the game after having just surpassed the 2,000-points milestone for career scoring and was eventually selected the Player of the Year in the state by GametimeCT.
Faison sank seven of her 15 field goals to score 18 points and she snatched 14 rebounds, including five under the offensive glass, to lead Greenwich. Utzinger had 15 points and a team-high four assists for the Cardinals.
Abby Caster had 18 points on 7-of-19 shooting from the field and seven rebounds to lead Northwest Catholic and Samantha Casper scored nine points for the Lions, who finished 26-2 and ranked No. 2 in the Final GametimeCT Top 10 Girls Basketball Poll.
Sacred Heart Academy (21-3), Division II state champion Bristol Central (22-5) and Division II runner-up Rocky Hill (25-3) were ranked 3-through-5.
The 23-4 Staples Wreckers were the only other FCIAC team in the Top 10 as they were tied for No. 6 with Mercy (21-4).
Division III state champion Coventry (27-2) was No. 8 and followed by East Catholic (20-5) and Division III runner-up Seymour (25-3).
Faison, who averaged 14.5 points and 11.2 rebounds during the season, was selected to the All-FCIAC Girls Basketball Team for the second year in a row and named the Player of the Year in the FCIAC.
She was the only conference player selected among the 12 players statewide on the 2025-26 GametimeCT All-State Girls Basketball First Team.
Danbury’s Roxane Tweah and Faison were the two FCIAC players among the nine total chosen to the 2025-26 Connecticut High School Coaches Association Girls Basketball Division I All-State Team.
Faison and Tweah, who was also a GametimCT All-State Honorable Mention pick, were joined on the eight-player All-FCIAC First Team by Julia DelRe of St. Joseph, Michaela Diamond of Trumbull, Ava Feay of Fairfield Warde, Freya Harvey of Staples, Cathryn Mills of Ridgefield, and Taylor Roncoroni of Stamford.
Harvey was also selected to the GametimeCT All-State Second Team and the CHSCA Division II All-State Team.
Mills was picked for the CHSCA Division II All-State Team and Feay was chosen to the GametimeCT All-State Third Team.
Chole Smith of Staples and Greenwich’s Madi Utzinger were both selected to the GametimeCT All-State Third Team after they were two of the eight players on the All-FCIAC Second Team along with Elsa Shekaj of Greenwich, Danbury’s Carleigh Bock, Trumbull’s Carley Johnson, Fairfield Ludlowe’s Hayden McBean, Fairfield Warde’s Chloe McDonald, and Stamford’s Jalynn Pressley.
The nine players chosen to the All-FCIAC Third Team were Olivia Atkins and Molly Kery of St. Joseph, Addie Talbott of Staples, Wilton’s Rose Bilella, New Canaan’s Lucy Detmer, Warde’s Ivy Feay, Stamford’s Janiah Steele, and Brien McMahon’s Amirah Thellot.
Another significant postseason honor went to Wax, who was selected by GametimeCT as its Coach of the Year after she guided her Greenwich Cardinals to that first state championship in school history and their first FCIAC title since 1988.