The Milford student section cheers after a 3-pointer by Jamie Holder game the Spartans their first lead of the game. For more photos, see the Photo Album.
DURHAM – The Class I boys basketball semifinal game between the high school teams from Milford and Portsmouth was so hot it set off the fire alarm.
OK, maybe not.
But the alarm really did go off. Actually, it was a bunch of balloons that brought about the smoke that stopped play with 7:20 left in the fourth quarter.
And the game? It was one to remember, and not just because of the 20-minute delay in the last quarter of what was at the time a two-point game.
Every time it seemed No. 4 Portsmouth was going to pull away, No. 1 Milford came right back. And when the Spartans finally took the lead late, the Clippers rose up and sent the game into overtime.
Once there, it was all Milford, as the Spartans pulled out a 60-56 overtime victory at Lundholm Gymnasium at the University of New Hampshire Tuesday night. The Spartans of Milford will get to take on the No. 2 Spartans of Pembroke, winners over No. 3 Oyster River in the other semifinal, in the Class I championship game on Saturday at 1 p.m. at UNH.
“I’m so happy right now,” Mike O’Loughlin said. “I thought they were going to win. We came back, we started hitting 3s. We had all the momentum.”
For O’Loughlin the win had a bit of redemption. A year ago, as a sophomore, he went to the free throw line and missed both shots late in Milford’s quarterfinal loss to Pembroke.
This time, when O’Loughlin went to the line with 49.6 left in the overtime, he did his best to focus.
Milford's Jamie Holder goes up for a layup during Tuesday's game.
“It felt so redeeming,” he said. “After missing those two last year, I tried my best to zone out anything. When I was on the line, I was telling myself it was just like practice and there’s no one around you.”
O’Loughlin finished with 14 points and five rebounds, but it was Jamie Holder who led the Spartans with 24 points and eight boards. Mike Mitchell added 13 markers.
All three stepped up in the second half to put Milford (20-1) in position to win.
Portsmouth (15-6) got out to a 24-13 lead with 5:22 left in the first half, but the Spartans closed on a 10-1 run to make it a two-point game at half time.
The Clippers took control again in the third quarter, getting out to an eight-point lead while Milford scored just two points in the first six minutes of the half.
But then the Spartans started making 3s. First came one from Holder, and then two from Mitchell, and before the end of the quarter, it was once again a two-point game, 38-36.
“Every time they came out for a new quarter, they got up again,” Mitchell said. “We just kept our composure.”
And then came the fire alarm.
At first, it sounded like a fan making a whooping noise from somewhere in the stands. But then, as a Portsmouth player shot an air ball, the buzzer sounded and UNH officials waved for everyone to clear the building.
“I thought it was the shot clock,” Milford coach Dan Murray said. “It was an air ball. I didn’t notice. They just shoved us outside. Some fans came over and gave us coats.”
While Murray thought the break – which lasted about 20 minutes while the fire department checked out the building – would help his team, the players felt otherwise.
“I know it hurt me because I had hit two 3s right before that,” Mitchell said. “And then fire alarm came. I was cold and after that I don’t think I hit another.”
Milford's Mike Mitchell throws up a shot around Portsmouth's Riley McCarthy.
The Clippers quickly went back up by eight points, but 3s by O’Loughlin and Holder kept Milford within two. With 1:58 left in regulation, Holder hit another 3-pointer, putting the Spartans up, 49-48, for the first time all game.
After free throws for both sides, Holder added a steal and a basket that gave Milford a 52-50 lead, and Mitchell made the first of two free throws to make it a three-point game.
Portsmouth called a timeout, and with 6.8 seconds left, Nate Jones drilled a 3-pointer from the top of the key to tie the game and send it into overtime.
“They had been killing us on the offensive boards and we didn’t want to foul them because we thought they’d miss the second free throw and get the offensive board and get a layup,” Mitchell said of the play. “We were thinking just stay on them as close as possible. Don’t let them get the shot off. It was a great shot and there was nothing I could do about it.
“It shouldn’t have gone into overtime. I should have hit that last one (free throw).”
Milford struggled from the free throw line, going 10-of-24 for the game. But the Spartans were 7-of-12 down the stretch, including O’Loughlin’s two and two more from Holder that put Milford up for good with 1:58 left in overtime.
“We’ve been working hard on free throws, yelling and screaming,” Murray said. “Mike, he was at the line for two big free throws last year. I was thinking he’s been here before, I wonder what’s going through his mind. He made the first and then the second, I was like ‘Yeah, Michael, that’s it.’ ”
And for the first time since winning the Class I title in 1975, the Spartans will play in a championship game.