Podcast: Forecasting the NEPSAC girls playoffs with one week remaining

Colleen Phiri and Tilton are in the NEPSAC Class AAA championship hunt. (Ethan Fuller/NEBJ)

The NEPSAC postseason is fast approaching, and recent results have only turned up the heat on the playoff picture.

Ethan Fuller and Steve Hewitt catch up on the latest in NEPSAC girls basketball, breaking down the races in Class AAA-B.

First, they discuss AAA, where Tilton is asserting itself as a championship contender alongside Nobles and Tabor. Meanwhile in Class AA, Worcester Academy continues to separate with statement wins. Class A sees top challengers to Loomis Chaffee emerge, while Class B remains up in the air with several teams in the hunt.

The podcast touches on big games over the last few weeks, plus what to watch for as we get closer to the bracket releases next Sunday.

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Highlights

What do you make of the interesting developments in Class AAA over recent weeks?

Ethan: “No shade to Tilton before this, but as great as I thought they were, I did kind of think this was a two-horse race in this class with Nobles and Tabor; they had done so well all season and they split against each other and those results were great. But Tilton last week gets a huge 57-48 win at home against Tabor. That was the matchup that I was really excited to see what would happen. I
watched almost all of it on the livestream, and Tilton’s defense — again, I’d watched Tilton the week before that. They played a neutral site game at Rivers against Loomis Chaffee…  Between those two games, Tilton’s defense is, I would say of those three teams, it is the best, and that is what kind of puts Tilton suddenly in this race. They’re not just a middle-to-longshot title contender. They’re as worthy of a challenger as these other two, which is exciting.”

What has Worcester Academy emerging as a potential Class AA favorite?

Ethan: “They shoot a ton of threes. They play really hard in transition. Elyse MacDonough — I am close to locking in this take — as behind Christina Pham, is probably the second best shooter in NEPSAC. Especially against NMH, she was just on one, on the road too. Really fun guard who plays hard in addition to obviously being an elite perimeter shooter, going to St. Bonnie’s. Ella Getz (is a) versatile forward, I would say one of the biggest risers of the winter season in 2026 class. You got Saige Youngberg; you got Gracyn Barnes. Just a ton of great guard play and again, they just play a really fun brand of offense and they play really, really hard for not being a big and physically imposing team. I will credit Dan Sullivan a ton, coming over from the boys side, to make this move to the girls side and immediately have this level of success.”

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