Cavs split with Spartans

Friday, December 23, 2011

Joe Marchilena photo Milford's Richie Moore and Hollis Brookline's James Wilson battle for a rebound during Tuesday's game in Hollis. Milford rallied in the second half for a 59-54 win.

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Joe Marchilena photo Milford's Jared Lakin pulls up for a shot while Hollis Brookline's Connor Walsh defends.

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Joe Marchilena photo Milford's Ben Smith tries to get around Hollis Brookline's Shea Whalen during Tuesday's game.

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Joe Marchilena photo Hollis Brookline's Shea Whalen goes up for a layup over Milford's Richie Moore during Tuesday's game.

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Joe Marchilena photo Milford’s Richie Moore and Hollis Brookline’s James Wilson battle for a rebound during Tuesday’s game in Hollis. Milford rallied in the second half for a 59-54 win.

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Joe Marchilena photo Milford's Richie Moore and Hollis Brookline's James Wilson battle for a rebound during Tuesday's game in Hollis. Milford rallied in the second half for a 59-54 win.

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HOLLIS – The Milford High School boys basketball team won 43 games in the previous two seasons in Division II, many by a wide margin.

This year, the Spartans will take a win any way they can get it.

Milford won its 42nd straight game – all but two of which came before this season – by rallying late in the third quarter and holding off Hollis Brookline for a 59-54 victory Tuesday night.

Richie Moore scored all of his game-high 19 points in the second half, and all but two of those points came in the last 11 minutes of the game. Jared Lakin added 14 points and Logan Barlow chipped in with 12 as Milford (2-0) rallied from as many 10 points down early in the third quarter and take the lead early in the fourth.

Nick Noval led HB (0-2) with 10 points while James Wilson, PJ Flaum and Tim Rencken each had eight points, as the Cavaliers struggled at the free throw line (9 for 22) and with turnovers 26 turnovers. Milford was only slightly better, shooting 19 for 31 from the line and turning the ball over 22 times.

“That’s mental stuff is all that is,” HB coach Mike Soucy said. “Some of the turnovers against their pressure, we work on that pretty much every day in practice and we’re able to break it pretty consistently. There are things we did well in spots, but right now, we’ve got to learn how to win. The pressure of the situation seems to get to us, and we make mistakes that we don’t normally make in practice.”

Milford coach Dan Murray wasn’t entirely pleased with what he saw from his team either.

“We’ve got to find how to play,” Milford coach Dan Murray said. “Later in the third and in the fourth, we started loosening up a little bit. Our lanes got better and our timing got better. We play a lot of players. They made a lot of mistakes in the fourth quarter and I think that had a lot to do with kids coming in and out. If we had made our free throws and layups, it would have been a much larger margin.”

HB led by six at halftime and pushed the lead to 10 twice in the third quarter, taking a 31-21 lead on a jumper by Shea Whalen with 5:55 left in the frame. But Milford chipped away, starting with a 3-pointer by Lakin to answer Whalen’s basket. The Spartans outscored the Cavs 18-11 to pull within three by the end of the quarter, and Milford took a 43-42 lead on a free throw by Ross Briggs early in the fourth.

The Cavs came back to go up 46-44 with 4:36 to play, but the Spartans went on a 13-3 run to lead 57-49 with 23 seconds to play.

“They’ve just got to learn on the fly and right now it’s a hard lesson,” Soucy said of his players. “I think we get comfortable sometimes and we do relax at times. They’ve got to learn how to win. We didn’t win a lot last year. We’ve got to break the cycle. It’s really the pressure right now. They’re going to turn the corner; they’re a talented group of kids and they want it.”