BARRE, Vt. — Windsor High girls basketball coach Kabray Rockwood descended the stairs to his team’s locker room in the basement of the Barre Auditorium on Thursday night.

Rockwood entered the Yellowjackets’ lair, slammed down the orange, plastic medical kit in his right hand and let out a scream that was instantly matched by a dozen teenage voices. Third-seeded Windsor had just punched its ticket to Saturday’s VPA Division III finals against top-seeded Oxbow with a 50-34 win over second-seeded Hazen.

Senior guard Audrey Rupp led Windsor with 19 points and Sophia Rockwood added 16 points. The Yellowjackets’ aggressive man-to-man defense pressured Hazen into 15-of-39 shooting from the floor, including 1-of-9 from three-point range. The Wildcats (21-2), who beat Windsor in last year’s division title game, committed 15 turnovers.

Hazen led by four points after a quarter on Thursday, but was down three by halftime. The Wildcats’ last lead came at 25-22, after Kelsie Rivard, the likely division player of the year, sank her team’s lone trey with 5 minutes, 45 seconds remaining in the third quarter. Rivard finished with 21 points.

“We pretty much knew the type of offense they were going to run,” Kabray Rockwood said. “If we could stay in front of them and stop the penetration and get help on (Rivard), we would likely have success.”

Windsor (18-4) rested control from there, going on an 11-2 run the rest of the third quarter and steadily pulling away during the fourth quarter. Rupp said her team’s strength of schedule, conspicuously more difficult than Hazen’s, was a significant factor in the result.

The Wildcats posted 16 victories by at least 20 points, but the Yellowjackets played some of Vermont’s best teams outside their league.

“We love those games, even if we lose,” Rupp said, pointing out that her squad twice beat Hartford and guard Charlotte Jasmin, the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year. Windsor also knocked off West Rutland and star Peyton Guay, Vermont’s career scoring leader. “If we can defend them, we can defend anyone,” Rupp added.

Windsor lacks a center to provide height and physical bulk, but Rupp not only drives from the outside on offense, she possesses jumping, shooting and rebounding skills under the hoop.

A soccer star who helped Windsor to its first state title last fall, the senior has committed to play that sport at NCAA Division III Worcester (Mass.) State in the fall. She also kicked for the Yellowjackets’ football team last year  and competes in lacrosse for Hartford during the spring.

“We play inside by committee,” Kabray Rockwood said. “Playing with one of our guards on a big (opponent) isn’t foreign to us and everyone has to commit to rebounding. Audrey’s a crafty pit bull who will go inside and mix it up with anybody.

“She uses her left hand better than her right and she keeps people guessing.”

Sophia Rockwood gives the Yellowjackets a sense of distinct purpose and poise when she has the ball. The senior, who’s committed to play basketball at Division III Westfield (Mass.) State next season, is a long-range shooting threat who scored 10 second-half points and drained all four of her free throws in the late going.

“When it gets to crunch time and we’re trying to settle our offense, we want the ball in her hands,” said her father, whose oldest daughter, Olivia, recently concluded her college career as a starter at the University of Maine. His youngest daughter, Amelia, scored seven points for Windsor on Saturday.

The Yellowjackets tackle Oxbow on Saturday in hopes of claiming their third division title in four years.

“Now it’s super eyes on the prize because we have an opportunity to do something big for our seniors,” Kabray Rockwood said. “The championship expectations are high and our younger players hear that every day.”

The message also seeps down to Windsor’s youth competitors, who often encounter their high school counterparts during open gym sessions or scheduled Saturday morning workouts designed for them to learn from their elders. Kabray Rockwood said the Yellowjackets reinforce their own understanding of the game through such teaching.

“Our recreation program is really good and those relationships have become a rite of passage,” the coach said. “It’s how our high school program keeps feeding itself.”

Dreams of Auditorium screams are planted early in Windsor.

Notes: Oxbow and Windsor did not meet during the regular season ... Yellowjackets senior Brianna Barton, a defensive standout, has committed to play basketball next season at Division III Hartwick (N.Y.) College ... Kabray Rockwood attended high schools in Guam and Spain and played basketball at the College of St. Joseph in Rutland, which closed in 2019 ... Windsor has won eight state titles and is 73-28 since playing its first postseason contest in 1975.

Tris Wykes can be reached at ctwykes@aol.com.