LANCASTER, N.Y. — Madison Francis stole the ball. She dribbled down the court all alone. And then it happened.

“I just heard from the crowd and my teammates, they’re all like, ‘dunk it, dunk it,’” she said.

Senior Night for Lancaster High School’s women’s varsity basketball team will long be remembered as the night Francis slam dunked in a game for the first time, joining an exclusive club.

“It was surreal. I know I’ve been working for it for a couple of years now,” she said. “I was just taking it back, looking at the crowd and how they were all cheering me on. Seeing my parents and my brother get all excited and run to the other side of the gym, it was fun.

Francis believes she first figured out she could dunk in seventh or eighth grade while practicing at home with her father and brother. Coaches and teammates had seen Madison try to dunk in games before, so they knew the 6’2” star had the hops to it hit. In fact, she had attempted to slam the ball earlier that night against Williamsville North.  

“Holding your breath and she went up and then boom and slammed it down,” said Head Coach Jayson Jaskier. “It was like the place erupted. Her family was so excited.”

Francis took off inside the lane and dropped the hammer with her right hand.

“It was crazy. Everyone was so excited for her,” said senior teammate McKenna Corcoran. “I was so excited. I started jumping up and down.”

There’s good reason for that type of hype. Slam dunks are scarce in women’s basketball. In the WBNA, only eight players have done it in a game, according to ESPN.com. At the NCAA Division I college level, nine different women have dunked, according to NCAA.com.

For a high schooler, that’s a flight few have flown.

“I’ve seen a couple people who have dunked, and I’m just glad that I get to part of one of the few people that can,” Francis said.

The magical moment has since gone viral on social media, even landing her on ESPN. It also caught the attention of her future college coach, at Mississippi State University.

“Was that awesome or what?” said Bulldogs Head Coach Sam Purcell. “Yeah, my phone started going crazy from New York. Like, ‘she did it, she did it.’ And I’m like, ‘what?’ Everybody. It was just really cool up there, was just sending me the videos and different angles. Just mad respect to her. She’s special.”

Special enough to score more than 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in her high school career, with her coaches and teammates cheering her on as she makes the next big leap in her basketball journey.

“Ever since she got here, we’ve been seeing just new, incredible things,” Jaskier said. “New things all the time, but we’ve never seen anything like that before.”

“It’s crazy that I have someone in my neighboring community who is going to go that big,” Corcoran added, while joking that she hopes Francis remembers her after her career continues to flourish.

“It just means like all my hard work has paid off,” Francis said. “I have a great support system from them, so it’s just been great to have them in my corner.”