Foxboro earns state title game.

The Foxboro Warriors pose at the center circle before Wednesday’s game.

The thread of success runs long for the Foxboro High School girls’ basketball program.

Through its formative post-Title IX days in the early 1980s with Dianne Cavanaugh, Sandy White and Ellen Corliss bringing the Warriors to two straight south sectional title games, to the latter part of the decade and the advent of Sarah Behn, Holly Grinnell and Jody Reilly, through the heydays of Jamie Kelley and Kristen Lentini, then Jen Brown and Meredith Kochanik, through Angela Astuccio, Ashley Sampson and Lily Sykes, and to the present, where another group of Warriors are poised to take on Taconic High of Pittsfield this weekend for the state Division 2 championship, excellence has been a hallmark of the young women wearing blue and gold. And Wednesday was no different.

Foxboro ended the Cinderella run of North Reading at the TD Garden, winning 52-35 in a performance that was just as much about teamwork and defense as it was about individual offensive performances. The Warriors improved to 24-2, while the Hornets dropped to 16-9.

“We knew their weaknesses and strengths, so I was able to get into their passing lanes and force them to go to other players,” said forward Yara Fawaz, whose job it was to take away North Reading’s three-point-shooting ace, Lauren Sullivan. "I guess it's 'the head of the snake,' like Coach (Lisa) Downs says."

“That was our goal, to take (Sullivan) out,” Downs said. “And since our shots weren’t falling the way we expected them to, we knew our defense was going to have to get the job done."

Fawaz did her job, playing defense with her legs and her smarts to push Sullivan far outside her comfort zone and beyond the NBA three-point arc. Lizzy Davis did her job, terrorizing anyone else at the perimeter despite having to play with a painful thigh bruise that followed a hard fall to the parquet  in the first quarter. Shakirah Ketant really did her job, scoring a team-high 16 points and grabbing in excess of 20 rebounds.

And let’s not forget Abby Hassman; the senior forward, more known for her defense and rebounding, rediscovered a deadly mid-range jumper and threw in 10 points on five baskets, filling in the gap that was created by the intense defense played on Katelyn Mollica (nine points) by North Reading guard Kiley McCarthy.

“I’ve been focusing on that more in practice lately,” Hassman said. "My priority was getting my shot down because if they shut one of us down, we have all of us … every one of us can score. We're always looking for … what it is? Good, better, best. We're looking for the good, better, best shot."

Hassman’s high-arcing jumpers were definitely of “Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition” caliber. North Reading coach Bob Romeo probably thought he had scoped out the Warriors well enough to overcommit to Mollica while also doubling Ketant in the paint, only to have Hassman bury shot after shot from 14 to 16 feet out.

Foxboro jumped out into a 10-2 lead in the early going, and extended it to 27-13 at the half despite being pressured into a multitude of turnovers and curiously missing several layups.

“I just think it was a lot of anxiety,” Downs said, noting how unusual the layup misses were in a cavernous arena where newcomers generally throw their outside shots into the ether. “That’s what happens when you’re playing in a place like this, no matter how much experience you have.”

A 17-9 third quarter put the Warriors in good stead. After an early surge by the Hornets, Hassman and Ketant combined for 10 points at the right time to send their team into the final eight minutes filled with confidence. And even though Sullivan was able to throw in a pair of threes from beyond the NBA circle, it was too little, too late.

Taconic defeated Medway, 48-46, in the Central-West semifinal on Wednesday night. This sets up the second state title trip of the Downs era, the first a successful one against Hopkinton, 49-41, in 2018 at the MassMutual Center in Springfield. It will also mark Foxboro’s fourth trip to Worcester for a state title game, including a prior double-overtime triumph over Lee in 2003.

The MIAA should decide the site and time of the championship game (most likely Saturday at the DCU Center) shortly.