Milford boys basketball powers past Souhegan
MILFORD – When the Milford High School boys basketball team is on offensively, the Spartans can be tough to stop.
Souhegan found that out the hard way.
Milford jumped out to an early lead and kept its foot on the gas pedal throughout Tuesday night’s game to beat Souhegan 69-41 in Division II action.
Three players were in double figures for the Spartans (2-0), as they scored 36 points in the first half and made eight 3-pointers on the way to their third win over the Sabers in the last four games.
“We have a lot of shooters,” Milford coach Dan Murray said. “Our game plan against them was to get it inside, then get it outside. They play good help defense, so we weren’t going to get to the rim a lot. We moved the ball pretty well and we got some good looks from 3.”
Ryan Banuskevich led the way with 17 points while Daniel Murray and Kirk Palladino each added 15 points, with Palladino hitting half of Milford’s 3s. Jack Briggs also had eight for the Spartans, who led 9-2 early in the first quarter and took a 14-point lead into halftime.
“We thought we were ready emotionally, but we weren’t ready to play,” Souhegan coach Peter Pierce said. “Maybe we’ll learn. Regardless of the game, I thought we were further along in our development. It’s not so much about this particular game, it’s really about where we are in terms of our execution and understanding where we need to be.”
Souhegan (1-1) got eight points each from Jerrell Webster, Gabe Cruz and Raju Gandhi, as Milford focused on keeping the Sabers out of the paint and forcing them to take outside shots.
“Daniel (Murray) matches up pretty well with (Webster) and he frustrated him more than anything,” Dan Murray said. “If that ball gets anywhere near the inside, we’re packing it inside. If they kick it to the other side of the court and shoot that shot, that’s fine. But they won’t beat us inside with Jerrell.”
It’s something the Sabers are going to have to get used to this season, according to Pierce.
“That’s going to be the way it is all year, so if we don’t figure it out it’s going to be a long season,” he said. “But the things you do to alleviate that defense, like ball movement and player movement, we didn’t get. It’s unfortunate that it happened (Tuesday).”
Milford grabbed a quick 6-0 lead in the first quarter and went up 9-2 and 13-6 before Souhegan was able to get something going. The Sabers cut the lead to three points on a basket by Ryan Hickey with 7.2 seconds left in the quarter, but Palladino hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to make it a 16-10 lead for Milford after one.
The Spartans opened the second with a 12-2 run to go up 28-12 with 4:28 remaining until halftime. Souhegan was able to get the lead back down to 10 points with a 6-0 run of its own, but that would be as close the Sabers would get the rest of the night.
Souhegan switched to a zone in the third quarter and held Milford to just 12 points, but the Sabers scored just four themselves and the Spartans led 48-26 at the end of three.
“I thought we did a better job when we went to the zone and slowed it down a little,” Pierce said. “Maybe we could have done that earlier. That’s on me. But you saw how they were shooting the 3. That doesn’t exactly entice anybody to (play zone) when they shoot the 3 like that.”
Both teams go on the road on Friday, as Milford heads to Hollis Brookline (2-1) and Souhegan travels to ConVal (0-1).
