DARTMOUTH — Remy Barber doesn’t want her high school basketball career to end.
The senior guard is enjoying Dartmouth High’s historic run to the MIAA Div. 2 Elite 8 while also relishing every minute she gets to play along with her younger sister, Lindsey, a sophomore.
“It’s awesome and bittersweet,” Remy said. “We’ve been playing against each other in the driveway since we were four and two years old so I’m sad that it’s coming to an end, but it’s really great to play with her and see her succeed and have fun.”
The Barber sisters were instrumental in No. 2 Dartmouth’s 54-45 comeback victory over 18th-seeded Leominster on Monday night in the Div. 2 Sweet 16 as they combined for 14 points and 14 rebounds.
Lindsey Barber sparked Dartmouth late in the second quarter, knocking down back-to-back 3-pointers in the final minute to send her team into halftime up 27-22 despite trailing most of the first half.
“I know I’m not going to get a nervous person when I put her in the game,” said Dartmouth head coach Brian Jalbert. “She is so fearless and she plays so hard. There are games where she plays for two minutes and there’s games where she plays for 20 minutes and she gives the same effort no matter how much she plays.”
Lindsey Barber added, “Coming off the bench, it feels really good to get my moment, especially in the state tournament. It feels really good to help my team win tonight.”
With junior Kaelyn Zuber out with an injury, Remy Barber focused on filling the void on the boards.
She finished the game with eight points and 10 rebounds.
“We have so much potential,” she said. “We knew what it feels like to lose in the Sweet 16 so we didn’t want to let it happen again so we knew today we all had to step up and work together in order to fill (Zuber’s) role and get the win.”
Remy Barber scored all of her points in the second half as Dartmouth went up by double digits.
“Coming out in the third quarter, I knew that we needed to have a lot of energy because I knew they were going to come out with a lot of energy. I did what I could to help our team,” she said. “We’ve worked really hard all season. Every practice and every game, we wanted to work together to get better to get to this point so I hope we can keep our momentum going forward.”
Dartmouth will be making its first Elite 8 appearance under the current MIAA playoff format in its deepest postseason run since 2004-05 when it captured the program’s first-ever state championship.
ANOTHER ACHIEVEMENT FOR CHEESEBRO
With a pullup jump shot midway through the first quarter, Dartmouth senior Kat Cheesebro became the SouthCoast’s all-time scoring leader in girls basketball, surpassing Karen Walsh’s 2,009 points from 1996. Cheesbro scored a game-high 28 points and currently has 2,033 for her career. She also had a team-high 11 rebounds.
“Kat got going and she was tough to stop tonight,” Jalbert said. “She was phenomenal again. She just doesn’t want her high school career to end. None of those three seniors (Cheesebro, Remy Barber and Kate Sullivan) do.”
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BIG MATCHUP IN THE POST
Jalbert praised the play of Kate Sullivan on Leominster’s Francesca Bello, who had to work for her team-high 15 points.
“Shoutout to Kate,” Jalbert said. “She was so great defensively inside. That was a big matchup for her. When she has someone she has to match up with, she always steps up. She really played great tonight.”
WHAT IT MEANS
Dartmouth (20-2) will host No. 7 Whitman-Hanson (16-7) at 7 p.m. on Friday in the Div. 2 Elite 8.
Dartmouth 54, Leominster 45
Leominster
Francesca Bello 15, Jayda Caldwell 4 (1), Mariela Deya 10 (2), Mia Keenan 8, Madison Lemanski 2, Addison Keenan 2.
Dartmouth
Lindsey Barber 6 (2), Kate Sullivan 2, Remy Barber 8 (2), Kat Cheesebro 28, Lily Gangi 3, Liv Faria 7 (1).
This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: Dartmouth girls basketball beats Leominster in 2025 Div. 2 Sweet 16
