It’s hard to imagine what the Milford High School girls basketball team has to play for in its final two games when all that’s taken into consideration is its record.
Milford's Mary Donovan leads the break during a game against Souhegan last week.
But even though the Spartans lug a 3-13 record into Tuesday night’s home game against Monadnock, there’s still hope, and it comes from a very unlikely place – the Heal Point System.
The same system that has one-loss Souhegan in fifth and nine-win Merrimack Valley in 15th, gives Milford a chance to still make the postseason despite the fact that the Spartans can finish with no more than five wins.
After losing to Souhegan and beating Bedford last week, Milford jumped up to 17th in the standings, one spot behind Laconia (4-12) for the final playoff berth. With a home game against Con-Val on Thursday to go with Tuesday’s game against the Huskies, the Spartans seem to have a good chance of reaching the playoffs for the third straight year.
“We’ve had a tough schedule,” Milford coach Ed Palladino said. “We started off playing mostly perennials and top eights, so it’s hard to get good matchups to start the season. Not that we weren’t playing well, because we did play well.
“It’s not over. Our last two home games mean something. This is my third year here and it’s come down to the last game each year.”
Even if the Spartans were to miss out on the postseason, it would be tough to not call it a success. While Milford returned a number of players from a year ago, none of them were key contributors in 2009.
This year’s core – juniors Mary Donovan and Taylor Sacco and freshman Dina Pitsas – will all be back next season with a year of experience under their belts.
“We returned a lot of players from last year, but they didn’t have a lot of playing time last year,” assistant coach Trevor Palladino said. “It will be a big difference next year, we’ll have three starters coming back who will have played 30 minutes a game.”
No matter how much experience the players, one thing that never seems to be a problem with Palladino’s teams is their ability to keep fighting. Even in the face of a losing season, there is still a desire and intensity that most teams wouldn’t have.
“This team has no quit in it,” Ed Palladino said. “They’re fighters. Our mindset is that we’re going to go out there and leave it on the floor. We’re going to go out there and with our heads up and we’re going to leave with our heads up, knowing that we’ve given it everything we had.”
If the Spartans are successful in their next two games, they might get a chance to play one more game.