Pitsas leads Milford girls basketball to comeback win over Hollis Brookline

HOLLIS – Time and space meant nothing to Dina Pitsas. All that mattered was she was taking the shot.

With under 20 seconds to go in Friday’s girls basketball game, Milford High School trailed by one and was trying to set up a play. On this night, not much had been working for the Spartans against Hollis Brookline’s defense.

Not much, other than Pitsas. The senior had scored Milford’s last eight points to turn an eight-point deficit into one.

Now with the clock running, she found the ball in her hands and just enough space between her and the defender to let a shot fly. Never mind that there were still about 18 seconds on the clock, or that she was at least five feet behind the arc.

“I had hit a couple in a row,” Pitsas said. “I happened to be open and the defender was off me a little and I was in rhythm. I have no idea where it came from. I was feeling it and I figured why not.”

The ball sank through for 3, giving Milford its first and only lead of the game, 39-37, with 15 seconds. After a timeout, the Cavaliers turned the ball over, as Pitsas stole the ball and ran out the clock, giving the Spartans an improbable victory.

“We just let them take the game away from us,” Hollis Brookline coach Bob Murphy said. “They played well all game long except for the end.”

Pitsas led all scorers with 27 points, including five 3-pointers, to help the Spartans (5-2 in Division II) come back from 11 points down in the first half.

Milford was still down, 36-28, with 4:26 to play, and that’s when Pitsas took over, leading the Spartans on an 11-1 run to close the game. The senior scored all of her team’s points over that stretch.

“I thought we were in good shape to run time off the clock and get us to the foul line,” Murphy said. “But when you come down and turn it over quickly, you give the other team an opportunity.

“(Pitsas) made some huge shots. Bottom line, we know she’s capable of doing that. We called timeouts to say its No. 10 we’ve got to stop. You’ve got to get a hand in her face when she’s shooting and we didn’t do that.”

Ellie Flaum led the Cavs (6-2) with 16 points, including 12 in the first half when HB got out to early leads of 7-0 and 10-2.

Milford didn’t score its first basket until 4:10 was left in the first quarter, and the Spartans didn’t reach double digits until the 5-minute mark of the second.

HB led 22-11 with 1:52 left in the half, but two free throws and a 3 by Pitsas made it a six-point game. Kellie Messer’s layup in the final seconds gave the Cavs a 24-16 lead at halftime.

“I told (Pitsas) at halftime, a lot of the girls weren’t having shots fall,” Milford coach Steve Signor said. “You’ve got to take it on your back and take a lot of shots, and she said ‘really?’ I said I don’t mind if you take 50 shots this half. Maybe it wasn’t 50, but they were key and some were pretty deep, too. She was feeling it.”

Pitsas opened the second half with two more free throws and another 3 to make it a five-point game, as HB struggled early in the third quarter after Milford switched to a zone defense.

“We swapped up our defense in the second half,” Signor said. “We weren’t playing bad defense, giving up 24 to a high-powered team, but we went to a different defense. Once we settled down on defense, good offense comes from great defense. It transitioned into baskets. Of course, having someone who was on fire late in the game always helps.”

But the Cavs were still in control of the game, leading 30-23 going into the fourth. Milford was able to cut the lead to four, 32-28, but baskets by Erin Ackerly and Katherine Kroeger gave HB a 36-28 lead that seemed like it would be enough.

It wasn’t. Pitsas made three 3-pointers in the final 62 seconds to give Milford the win.

“All my scouting reports were based around (Pitsas),” Murphy said. “You let her come back at the end like that … she took over the game.”