NORTHAMPTON — Bri Heafey stepped to the foul line for three shots in the second quarter of the No. 2 Northampton girls basketball team’s PVIAC Class A quarterfinal matchup with No. 7 Westfield on Monday night. The Blue Devils senior needed to knock down a pair to give her 1,000 career points.

Behind her laser-focused glare toward the basket, Heafey’s mind raced. She thought about the ACL tear that caused her to miss more than half of her freshman season, how it felt playing 90 percent of her sophomore year at much less than 100 percent health, and, of course, she remembered the long, demanding journey back.

So when Heafey put the first two free throws through touching nothing but net, she breathed the biggest sigh of relief she ever had in her life. One of her high school goals had been achieved despite a great deal of adversity getting in the way.

Heafey scored a game-high 20 points as the Blue Devils cruised past the Bombers, 58-28, and into the Class A semifinals.

“Just all my hard work, starting in my eighth grade year playing on the varsity team, it finally paid off,” Heafey said. “It seems like it’s taken forever, but it’s a milestone that I’ve been dreaming of my whole life. I just loved the way that my team has supported me through this process of recovering from an ACL tear, and not really being 100 percent for two years. I’m proud of myself for the hard work and perseverance that it took to get here.”

Heafey stood at 990 total points coming into Monday night’s game, and after an efficient first quarter put her at eight points for the game, she only needed two the rest of the way. Less than two minutes into the second, Heafey navigated around a screen and saw a clean shooting window on the right wing. She stopped at the 3-point line, set her feet and let one fly. As she jumped, a Westfield defender bumped her from behind – prompting a whistle from an official and sending Heafey to the line for three shots.

After making the first two, her teammates and coaches spilled onto the floor with balloons, hugs and a poster. Her family soon joined. Heafey dished out several flashy passes through the first 10 minutes of action. Her typical role as Northampton’s point guard is to facilitate the offense, so she found it a bit difficult to look to score right away.

She didn’t care how she got her 1,000th point. Whether it was a 3, a layup, a mid-range jumper or a free throw – Heafey just wanted to get it over with.

“I find it hard to be shoot-first as a point guard,” she said. “So my coaches were like, ‘Just get it over with so you can play your normal game.’ That was a hard concept for me, so I was relieved when it was over. No matter how it happened I knew I was going to appreciate it.”

Northampton head coach Perry Messer didn’t meet Heafey when she joined the Blue Devils program as a middle schooler. He already knew plenty about her, as she dominated his summer clinics despite being much younger – and smaller – than her peers.

Messer knew long before Heafey’s varsity career started that she was a special player. Monday only further solidified it.

“She’s a special girl,” Messer said. “I’m so happy for her. The adversity of losing pretty much a whole season, yet she still came back and achieved this. You saw her tonight, she did a little bit of scoring for us, but she also made some beautiful passes out there. That’s what she does. I’ve been lucky enough to have her all this time, and I’m just happy and proud of her. And the thing with her is, she’s always team-first. It’s out of the way now, and we’re at the time of year where it’s win and move on or lose and go home. She doesn’t want to go home.”

It certainly showed that Heafey and her teammates had activated playoff mode. Heafey knocked down the third free throw after the celebration stoppage and it was back to business. Northampton took a 33-16 lead into halftime and its defense took it from there.

Westfield scored only 12 second-half points, including just four in the third quarter, as the Blue Devils created several turnovers that led to layups and open shots from the perimeter. Even without one of their top leading scorers and best defenders in Anna Oravec, Northampton had no problem on either end of the floor. Aside from Heafey’s 20, Liv Joensen added 16 points, Emme Calkins scored 15, Makayla Fydenkevez chipped in five and Imanni Power-Greene put in a layup to round out the Blue Devil scoring.

As every basketball coach in the world will tell you, it’s essential that a team is playing its best come postseason play. Northampton did exactly that a year ago when it made the MIAA Division 2 Final Four, and Heafey thinks the Blue Devils (15-4) are almost there as they await No. 3 Minnechaug in the Class A semis on Wednesday night.

“We’re a really young team, but I think we’re really getting it together as a group,” Heafey said. “We’re turning the ball over a lot less, we’re playing more as a team and we’ve figured out how we work together. I think it’s awesome that it’s happening in playoff time when it matters, and I’m excited to see how far we can go.”

In Northampton and Minnechaug’s only meeting of the season, the Blue Devils won 49-44 in overtime. Messer is prepared for another battle with the Falcons (14-5) on Wednesday.

“They’ve been playing well this year, and they’re going to play well defensively,” Messer said. “They play hard, they have some length and it’s going to come down to playing defense. Hopefully we’ll have [Oravec] healthy for Wednesday, but if not, everybody else will step up and play like they’re capable of. We’ve worked hard to make sure we have the seed to play a home game, but you’ve got to finish the job.”