Still going

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Joe Marchilena photo Milford's Brianna Hoffman drives to the basket against Goffstown's Rosalie Edmonds during Tuesday's game. Hoffman was called for a charge on the play.

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MILFORD – Every team knows the importance of free throws.

The Milford High School girls basketball team found out just how important making them is Tuesday against Goffstown.

On a night when the Spartans struggled from the field, their free throw shooting bailed them out, as Milford was 22 of 26 from the line, and held off the Grizzlies 36-34. The win is the sixth of the year for the Spartans (6-10) and keeps their hopes of making the Division II playoffs alive.

“We’ve got our work cut out for us,” said Milford coach Steve Signor, whose team will host Pelham on Friday and head to Bishop Brady on Tuesday. “You’ve got to take care of your own business. We did tonight.”

Dina Pitsas led the way for Milford, scoring 18 points and making 12 of 14 free throws, including six in the fourth quarter. Brianna Hoffman and Adelle Pitsas each had four points for the Spartans, who made just seven field goals all game. Goffstown got 13 points from Natalie VanScoyoc, but the Grizzlies were plagued by foul trouble.

While Milford was going to the foul line 26 times, Goffstown was just 6 for 11 from the charity stripe.

“They were very physical with their defense,” Signor said. “They came out and they played physical to try to take us out of our game. Thankfully, we stepped up from the free throw line because we weren’t making shots.”

At times, it was easier for the Spartans to take their time and shoot from the foul line.

“I think it’s just rushed,” Dina Pitsas said of why Milford shot better from the line. “We’ve been working on (free throws) so much in practice. You can only catch in shoot in so much time.”

After Goffstown got out to a 10-6 lead in the first quarter, the Grizzlies struggled against Milford’s defense, going the whole second quarter and the first two minutes of the third without scoring. The Spartans did enough on the other end, outscoring Goffstown 12-0 to take an eight-point lead.

“Defensively, that second quarter, zero points in a quarter is big, especially when we gave up 10 (in the first),” Signor said. “We’ve got to hold teams to under 10 points a quarter.

“I think we confused them a little with our defense. We started off with man for a few sets and then we went to a matchup zone that we started out in philosophy of a man-set.”

A layup by Dina Pitsas put Milford up 20-12 with 4:15 left in the third quarter, but Goffstown went on a run of its own, outscoring the Spartans 14-4 to take its first lead since the second quarter.

VanScoyoc hit a 3-pointer with 4:37 left that put the Grizzlies up 29-26, but Pitsas answered with a layup and a free throw to tie the game. Again, VanScoyoc got Goffstown the lead with a layup, but Pitsas came back with a three-point play to put Milford up 32-31.

Hoffman added a jumper to make it 34-31 with 2:04 left, and Pitsas made two more free throws to put Milford up five, but Goffstown wasn’t done. VanScoyoc hit another 3 to make it a two-point game with five seconds left, but the clock ran out as Milford inbounded the ball.

“They played hard and it could have gone either way,” Signor said. “The difference was on the line.”

The win leaves Milford at 17th in the standings; only the top 16 make the postseason, but Signore believes that if the Spartans can win their final two games, they might be able to jump a couple of teams in the standings. Kingswood (6-8) and Plymouth (6-10) are 15th and 16th, respectively, and both still have to play head-to-head, and Kingswood still has games against Coe-Brown (12-3) Souhegan (11-4).

“I think if we take our next two, we could take that 13th or 14th seed,” Signor said. “It’s our own destiny and it depends on what we’re going to do with it.”