NEW CASTLE — Grace Fetterman wasn’t quite ready to see her high school basketball career come to an end.

The Delmarva Christian High senior netted a game-high 26 points in the 18th-seeded Royals’ 55-21 victory over William Penn High in Wednesday night’s DIAA girls’ basketball state tournament second round.

After receiving a bye during Monday’s opening play-in round, the Royals made the most of their showdown with the No. 15 seeded Colonials en route to the program’s first-ever state tournament victory.

“It’s definitely a big deal (to these girls),” said DCHS coach Jedidiah Roach. “It’s a huge step in the right direction. We want to change the program and change the look of Delmarva Christian. We have a stigma that we don’t compete (in the tournament) and that when competition is presented in front of us we’ll back down, but no we don’t want to do that anymore. We want to be in the race, we want to be in the game.”

The program has won Eastern Shore Independent Athletic Conference (ESIAC) championships, but never a DIAA tourney game despite making seven consecutive trips dating back to the 2014-15 season.

In the team’s previous six trips to the tourney, the Royals have lost by an average deficit of 35.5 points.

“We’re pretty pumped about it. I’ve been waiting since the beginning for this,” said Fetterman. “I think we were just really ready to come in and win … we played great together as a team. It makes my job really easy as a point guard when I’m able to trust my teammates and know they’re going to get the job done.”

The Royals (11-4) move on to face second-seeded Conrad Schools of Science in the next round Friday night. Tipoff is slated for 6:30 p.m.

Sophomore Ainsley Bell registered 15 points for the Royals, with junior Sierra Troyer dropping six points, reeling in six rebounds and registering a pair of first half steals.

Though Kandice Shlabach didn’t score any points, the senior was a disruption under the basket, reeling in nine rebounds and registering four steals.

Sophomore Evelyn Jensen went four-for-four from the free throw line while fellow sophomores Tessa Kwiatkowski and Elizabeth Moyer added two points each.

Junior forward Aniyah Kelley led the scoring for the Colonials (7-5) with six points. Junior Alexis Sawyer and freshman Tanasia Turner added five each.

Delmarva Christian missed the first four shots of the game, but still controlled possession and the tempo from the start, putting together a 13-0 run through the first six minutes before junior point guard Laylaa Cuff finally put the Colonials on the board with a layup at the 1:40 mark.

Relentless pressure from Delmarva Christian’s defense led to mistakes and fast break points at the other end of the court as William Penn’s 11 points at halftime marked the second-fewest point total the Royals’ defense allowed all season.

“A point of emphasis has been to play great defense,” said Roach. “You have to play championship defense every night. Shots may not go in, but defense carries … defense really carries.”

Already ahead by 22 points at the break, Fetterman came out and scored the first 12 points of the third quarter to set up a running clock entering the final quarter of play.

Fetterman, fresh off registering the 1,000th point of her career in the team’s season finale win over Caravel Academy Feb. 24, scored all of her points in just three quarters of work.

“It feels really good,” Roach said. “I didn’t know if we were even going to have a season, and every day I go into practice not knowing if someone has COVID, not knowing if the season will be shut down. I just tip my hat off to everyone who’s playing basketball in Delaware this year. To play with these masks, it’s really a struggle, but we were able to do it and it feels good.”