It was the perfect end of the regular season for the Highland girls’ basketball team.

The Huskies, who only won three games last year, have plenty to celebrate as they sent their seniors off on Senior Night with a 44-41 win over the S.S. Seward Spartans on Friday at Highland High School.

There was no better way to celebrate Senior Night as the Huskies’ four seniors: Addie McDowell, August Trombetta, Kayleigh Kaplan and Emma Thompson.

“Just the experience of being with my team and having it be a really close experience and having all the posters up, and having the gym decorated and also getting a win is just amazing,” said McDowell.

Not only have they posted their first winning season since 2018-19, but they’ve also won the Mid Hudson Athletic League Division III championship and first berth in the MHAL tournament in at least four years.

They were scheduled to open the tournament against Division IV champion Millbrook on Monday at Highland High School. A win Monday would put them in Wednesday’s MHAL championship game against the winner of the other semifinal between the Division I champion Wallkill and Division II champion Red Hook on Wednesday at SUNY Ulster.

From the Mid Hudson Athletic League tournament, they’ll move onto their first Section 9 tournament berth since 2018-19.

“It’s huge,” McDowell said. “After a couple of years of having tough records and everything, it feels great to have an opportunity to go out with a bang and end it right.”

McDowell hit a couple of key 3-point baskets that helped the Huskies build an early lead over the Spartans early in the game on her way to 13 points. Junior Grace Koehler also scored 13 points.

Senior Emma Thompson scored six points.

“If we are going to have a chance in sectionals, those three girls, Addie, Emma and Kayleigh (Kaplan) are going to play their best and hopefully at their peak at the right time,” Highland coach Michael Geller said. “Today was a great learning experience, and obviously emotional for them.”

Shannon Sgombick did the most damage for the Spartans, scoring a game-high 21 points, and even though they entered the fourth quarter trailing the Huskies by 14 points, they closed to within three points at the buzzer.

“I’m happy that it happened because they need to learn how to win in those crunch-time minutes,” Geller said. “I think we had a good first quarter. They played a one, which we need to get some more paint touches and more seals to create more opportunities down there.”

The Huskies got a quick jump on the Spartans early in the game as the three seniors, Thompson, McDowell and Kaplan, hit early baskets to give the Huskies an early 7-0 lead. McDowell’s basket was a 3.

The Huskies outscored the Spartans, 21-12, in the first quarter, and even though the offense slowed in the second quarter, the defense was solid, holding the Spartans to two points.

“We just focused on taking out their two big scorers,” McDowell said. “And from there, we just tried to make someone else beat us, and I think we took them out pretty well.”