Norwich — The Fitch girls' basketball program was face down in the dirt when Charlotte Carney, Frankie Foster and Alyssa Virtue arrived three seasons ago.

The senior trio has a led a rebuilding process that allowed the Falcons to give the state's number one team their toughest fight of the season Monday night.

Norwich Free Academy senior Jenissa Varela had 23 points, six steals and five assists as the top-seeded Wildcats won their tightest game, 57-46, in the Eastern Connecticut Conference South Division semifinals on Monday nighty at Alumni Gym.

NFA (12-0), ranked first in the GameTimeCT/New Haven Register media and coaches' poll, will host to No. 3 Waterford in Thursday's final at 7 p.m. The game will be streamed live by GameDay at theday.com.

Waterford edged No. 7 Ledyard, 35-33. NFA beat the Lancers, 54-23, on March 3 in their only regular-season meeting.

Fourth-seeded Fitch finished the season 8-3. To put that in perspective, the Falcons finished the 2016-17 season 1-20.

Leave the place in better shape than you found it.

"All the upperclassmen quit (after the 2017-18 season)," said Fitch head coach D.J. Berger, who took over the program when his seniors were freshman. "It was all sophomores and freshman, and they went 8-12 (in 2018-19) and made states for the first time in a long time.

"(Last season), they were all upset if we lost because they thought we could've won. That's the culture that (Carney, Foster and Virtue) had set. And then our JV team went unbeaten this year because of their practice habits and the culture (the seniors) have built here. Their expectations are to win."

NFA clobbered the Falcons in their only regular-season game, 60-23, on Feb. 26.

The Wildcats led 15-6 after one quarter Monday.

Fitch toughened up and got as close as 27-18 with 40.7 seconds left in the second quarter.

"We were a little embarrassed how we played here in the regular season," Berger said. "The whole team (talked) about how (NFA) was the No. 1 team and that we needed to fight. We're a good team when our energy is high."

Sarah Ericson finished with 12 points and seven rebounds for NFA and Anajah Ingram added 11 points.

Virtue had 15 points and 11 rebounds for Fitch and Foster had 10 points and four rebounds. Carney added nine rebounds.

"(Fitch) came out and battled," Wildcats head coach Courtney Gomez said. "Their defense was really great tonight and it forced us to make some open shots. We made some when they mattered. We missed some early on. I think that was the best game for us because we needed to be tested like that. We haven't had a close game where we to handle the ball and grit through fouls and be smart with our offensive possessions.

"Hats off to Fitch. They had an unbelievable year. D.J. does a tremendous job over there. Alyssa and Charlotte, I've coached in AAU (the Connecticut Storm) for a couple of years. I knew they weren't going to want their season to end, and they've had fabulous careers."

NFA flustered the Falcons in the first quarter with Varela having three of her team's four steals.

"Our game plan was to stop their two guards (Ericson and Varela), but that’s hard to do," Berger said. "It was just hard to score against their defense. They're so quick."

Fitch wouldn't go away, though. Its press began giving the Wildcats trouble late in the second quarter, allowing the Falcons to end the half on a 10-5 run and cut the deficit to 29-18.

"I was extremely happy with our press," Berger said. "The last three or four games our press has been phenomenal. I think we caught them off guard. A lot of teams give NFA a lot of respect and don't press them. We gave it a try, but they're good. It was an uphill battle all night."

Virtue said of her and her classmates, "We just put in so much work the past few years, and we're happy the next generation of (players) have something to look forward to now that they know we can turn it around and have a winning record."

n.griffen@theday.com