Defense leads Milford girls basketball past Windham

MILFORD – Clairee Putnam was going to get her points, Steve Signor told his Milford High School girls basketball players before Tuesday night’s game against Windham.

For the Spartans, it was a matter of shutting everyone else down.

Putnam finished a game-high 22 points, but no one else scored more than five the Jaguars, as they fell to the Spartans 51-36 in a Division II game. Milford held Windham to five points in the second quarter and four in the fourth to secure its fifth win in a row.

Jennifer Dupuis led the Spartans (9-1) with 19 points, 14 of which came in the second half, while Rebecca Cleary was also in double figures, scoring 13 points off the bench. Brianna Hoffman also had eight points for Milford, but the was more about the Spartans’ defense.

After a back-and-forth first quarter that saw Windham end up with a 14-13 lead on a last-second basket by Putnam, the Spartans regrouped on the defensive end.

“Our goal is to keep them under 10 in a quarter,” Signor said. “The first quarter was a little rough. We kind of struggled a little, getting some fouls on us, and they were hitting their free throws. Once we hit that second quarter, we locked it down on defense and played better.

“We tried to contain Clairee as much as we could. I told them I didn’t care if she got 20 points, but let’s keep her around 20. The biggest goal was to shut down the rest of the players on their team and we did.”

For Milford, that started with containing forward Lexi Sawyer and keeping the Jaguars from getting the ball inside.

“That’s what we work on the hardest, talking and working together, especially with the big girls,” Dupuis said. “We always try to double down on them constantly to not let them do anything down there and that’s what stopped (Sawyer).”

Milford opened the second quarter with a 12-2 run – including a 10-0 stretch over a three-plus minute span – and led by nine points with 2:50 left in the half. During that stretch, the Jaguars turned the ball over five times and were whistled for five fouls.

The lead was eight points, 27-19, at halftime and the Spartans opened the second half with a 9-2 run to go up 36-21 with 4:42 left in the third quarter. But Windham responded with a 10-3 run, with Putnam scoring six of those points, to cut the Milford lead to 39-31 late in the third.

The Spartans answered again with  a 9-3 run that stretched into the fourth quarter and put them up 48-34 with 4:32 to play.

Milford faces one of its tougher tests on Thursday, when the Spartans travel to play Portsmouth (9-1). The two teams are tied for second in the division.