Souhegan girls basketball sticks to game plan for win over Milford

MILFORD – The Souhegan High School girls basketball team needed a reminder of what it’s game plan was.

When Sabers coach Mike Heaney called a timeout late in the first half, his team had made just one field goal in almost six minutes and had watched a seven-point lead over Milford whittled down to as little as one.

Running the floor and getting to the basket was how Souhegan was going to win the game, Heaney stressed to his players, and that’s what the Sabers did.

Souhegan closed the first half on a 10-3 run and outscored Milford 33-12 in the second half of a 60-31 win over the Spartans in Division II action. The win keeps the Sabers (4-0) undefeated in the division, while the Spartans fall to 2-2.

Hannah Chick scored 17 points for Souhegan, which had four players in double figures. Ciarri Formby-Lavertu added 12 points, while Allison Canavan had 11 and Mia Len scored 10.

“The first half, I thought we played tentatively and Milford really took it to us,” Heaney said. “I told (Milford coach) Rich Parent after the game, he’s got to be proud of his kids for how hard they play and work all game long. I thought the second half we were patient and ran our offense. We went inside and took advantage of our size and did what we were capable of.”

The Sabers made 26 field goals, none of which came from behind the 3-point line, and attempted just two shots from behind the arc.

Milford got nine points from Jennifer Carson while Ari Devine had seven points and Erin McGuire and Devaney Pitsas each had six. Both McGuire and Pitsas were in foul trouble early, which led to Pitsas not playing most of the third quarter.

“The first half was very good, kind of what we expected,” Parent said. “We got into a little bit of foul trouble, which we can’t afford to do. It hurt us mostly in the third quarter when we had to sit Devany (Pitas) down for most of the quarter. That hurt because she’s one of the most important parts of our team.”

Souhegan jumped out to a six-point lead in the first quarter and went up 17-10 on a layup by Formby-Lavertu with 6:01 left in the second. But Milford came back with a 6-0 run to cut the lead to one on a basket by McGuire.

The Sabers were able to push the lead back to four at the free throw line, but Heaney didn’t like what he was seeing when his team was on offense.

“I think when I called that timeout, we had gone a few possessions in a row with one pass and then a shot,” he said. “It was the same message I was giving the whole half. Get out and run, and get to the hoop and finish.

“As a team, we probably missed 10 shots under the hoop. Some of its jitters and the rivalry, but some of it is not being mentally tough.”

Emma White and Len made back-to-back layups and Len added two free throws with 2.7 seconds left in the half to make it an eight-point game at the break.

The teams traded baskets to open the third quarter, but then Souhegan went on a 14-4 run to go up 46-27 with 5:46 left in the game.

“They beat us down the court a couple of times,” Parent said. “Souhegan is stronger off the bench. It’s not that they’re scoring a lot, but they’re not throwing the ball away and making unforced errors. That’s where we’ve got to get better.”

Both teams are back in action on Friday, as Milford hosts Hollis Brookline (3-3) and Souhegan hosts ConVal (0-2).