BEDFORD – Mike Mitchell isn’t used to being the guy doing the scoring for the Milford High School boys basketball team.
But if the Spartans were going to win Tuesday night against Bedford, Mitchell had to be the guy to do it.
With Mike O’Loughlin struggling – the Spartans’ leading scorer finished with just six points – and Jamie Holder scoring 10 points, Mitchell took control of the offense, scoring a game-high 18 points to help the Spartans pull out a 50-47 win over the Bulldogs in a Class I game.
“He’s a competitor and he wants to win,” Milford coach Dan Murray said of his junior point guard. “He doesn’t mind not scoring as long as the other guys are. Tonight he kind of took it on his shoulders, which is pretty awesome.”
Mitchell did the most damage in the third quarter, scoring 10 of his team’s 17 points as Milford (8-1) built up a 12-point lead.
But the game was far from over.
After a 3-pointer by Mitchell gave the Spartans a 34-22 lead, Bedford (7-2) went on a 21-6 run over a seven-minute stretch of the third and fourth quarters to pull ahead 43-40 with 5:29 left in the game. In the final five minutes of that run, the Spartans went scoreless.
“We bore down defensively and we were limiting them to one shot,” Bedford coach Joe Kegler said. “When you’re able to limit teams to one shot, good things are going to happen.”
The Bulldogs were able to do that because of their work on the defensive glass. Bedford outrebounded Milford, 25-19, in the second half and Joseph Maher grabbed 23 rebounds for the game.
“We had a little spell at the end of the third and beginning of the fourth where we oopsed,” Murray said. “A lot of that was we rushed our offense. One guy dribbles and shoots and they come right back. It’s hard to defend that.”
A basket by Richard O’Brien put Bedford up 43-40, leading Murray to call a timeout with 5:21 to play. Both teams had a scoreless possession before O’Loughlin got his first basket since late in the second quarter to cut the lead to one.
Bedford went up four on a three-point play by Maher, who finished with 11 points, but Milford answered with back-to-back baskets by Kyle Nelson and Mitchell to tie the game. Maher made another free throw to put the Bulldogs ahead, 47-46, with 2:19 left, but Bedford wouldn’t score again.
O’Loughlin scored to put Milford up 48-47, and with 13.8 seconds left, Mitchell hit two free throws to give the Spartans a three-point lead.
After a timeout, Bedford got an open look from behind the 3-point line, but that, and two shots from in close, wouldn’t fall.
“We wanted to run a double curl to Trevor Glassman,” Kegler said. “He got a good look, he just came up short on the shot. We ran the play that we wanted to run and next time, he is going to make that shot.
“It was an intense game. When you’re playing the No. 1 team in Class I, you have to step up to the challenge, and I think our kids did that.”
While Milford failed to score at least 70 points for just the third time this season, the Spartans held an opponent to less than 50 points for the sixth time.
“I was very happy with our defense,” Murray said. “Defense won the game for us, especially down the stretch. Part of our struggles are when we don’t play good team offense.
“We’re nowhere near where we need to be to win. Other teams are getting better. We have to work on that, team offense. It’s not going to cut it, no matter how good of defense you play.”