Milford girls basketball holds off Hanover

MILFORD – The Milford High School girls basketball team needed to switch something up.

The Spartans went into halftime of Wednesday night’s game against Hanover with a three-point lead, and coach Rich Parent wasn’t too pleased with the way his team had been playing defense.

Milford went to a zone to open the third quarter, and the results were immediate, as the Spartans held the Marauders to just four points in the quarter on their way to a 44-36 win in Division II action.

The win moves Milford to 14-1 on the season, helping the Spartans keep pace with Coe-Brown (16-0) and Bishop Brady (15-1).

“Hanover is one of those teams that we knew, their record does not indicate how good they are,” Parent said. “We knew how good they were. We tried playing man (defense) and I was kind of disappointed in our help. We had a long talk about it at halftime and then we came out and played zone.”

Hanover fell to 7-8, as it lost its fifth game of the season by eight points or less.

“We’re the best 7-8 team in the state,” Hanover coach Dan O’Rourke said. “Our effort was fantastic. We made some critical turnovers that shot us on the foot. I thought we were in the game, and we’ve been in every game this year.”

Devany Pitsas scored 14 points, including 8 of 14 at the free throw line, to lead Milford. Adelle Pitsas was also in double figures with 11 points as Hanover looked to shut down Jess Ryan, who finished the game with just five points.

“I saw them play twice this year and I thought the offense ran through Jess,” O’Rourke said. “We wanted to try to limit her and see if other kids could step up and beat us.”

Caroline Rodi led the Marauders with 10 points, while JJ Daniell scored five of her nine points in the game’s final 90 seconds.

The win was the Spartans second in as many nights and third in a row against teams with a non-winning record. Milford will head to St. Thomas on Friday with games against Oyster River (13-3) and Merrimack Valley (11-5), the team that knocked the Spartans out in last year’s semifinals, looming on the schedule.

Parent hasn’t had to stress to his players the importance of not looking past any of these games.

“St. Thomas has talent, but their record doesn’t indicate that,” he said. “We feel that without Becca (Cleary) that every game is (a trap game). We don’t walk into games thinking we’ve got this.”

That wasn’t the case with Wednesday’s game either, as Hanover held the lead for most of the first quarter, but the Spartans went on a 13-4 run that put them up 17-11 early in the second.

The Marauders were able to cut Milford’s lead to 24-21 at halftime, but struggled to score in the third quarter. The Spartans didn’t do much more on their own end of the floor, but pushed the lead back to seven, 30-23, on a three-point play by Kaitlyn Matthews with 3:39 to go in the frame.

Milford kept it a two-possession lead, or more, for most of the fourth before an 8-0 run made it 42-29 with 1:31 to play. Hanover got two free throws and a 3-pointer from Daniell sandwiched around a putback by Rodi to make the score a little closer at the end.

“I thought the whole game, we had a shot,” O’Rourke said. They’re a seasoned team and they didn’t panic and they didn’t make many mistakes. We, at times, made too many.”

Parent is counting on that seasoning to lead the Spartans the rest of the season, especially if Cleary isn’t able to return from a knee injury.

“The seniors are a phenomenally good at that (grinding out wins),” he said. “You see it all the time in basketball, these girls that have experience are so much more poised and prepared for it. It’s amazing the growth that happens, and seniors just have that experience. You can’t put a number on it … calmness and not panic.”