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# Milford girls basketball shuts down Derryfield in D2 semis to reach 1st title game since 1981
- URL: https://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/milford-girls-basketball-shuts-down-derryfield-in-d2-semis-to-reach-1st-title-game-since-1981/
- Published: 2025-03-13T16:00:42.000Z
- Updated: 2025-03-13T16:00:42.000Z
- Description: DERRY — Throughout the night, the Milford High School girls basketball team showed its defensive prowess against Derryfield during Wednesday’s Division II semifinal matchup, but the Spartans saved their best for when it mattered most. After third-seeded Derryfield grabbed a one-point lead in the fou
- Author: Dan Doyon
- Tags: Division II, Derryfield, girls basketball, Milford, playoffs, slider, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-18 04:44

DERRY — Throughout the night, the Milford High School girls basketball team showed its defensive prowess against Derryfield during Wednesday’s Division II semifinal matchup, but the Spartans saved their best for when it mattered most.

After third-seeded Derryfield grabbed a one-point lead in the fourth quarter, No. 2 Milford held the Cougars scoreless the remaining 5:20 in closing out the game with a 9-0 run for a 37-29 victory inside Pinkerton Academy’s Hackler Gymnasium.

“Honestly, it was trying to get as many stops as we can and keeping on them at the 3-point line because they have a lot of shooters,” Milford sophomore Lexi Bausha said. “Just keeping them tight because they like to drive and I think we did that.”

Milford (18-3) will look for the program’s first championship in 46 year when the Spartans take on No. 4 Oyster River, which upset No. 1 Laconia 39-36 in the other semifinal, at noon Saturday at the University of New Hampshire’s Lundholm Gymnasium.

The Spartans won the Class AA title in 1976 followed by Class I crowns in 1978 and 1979\. They also reached the Class L title game in 1981 and Wednesday's semifinal appearance was just the program's fifth since.

“This is a group that just didn’t want their season to end,” Milford coach Mike Davidson said. “They don’t want it to end. They told me when we started practicing a hundred days ago when we started that they wanted to win a state title. Now we’ve got one more game.”

Chloe Bremberg gave Derryfield (17-4) a 29-28 lead before Milford’s Shea Hansen stole the ball and pushed the ball ahead to Bausha for a 3-pointer in transition to give the Spartans the lead for good.

“When I hit that I knew it was us from there,” Bausha said. “It motivated us the rest of the game and the intensity went up.”

Bausha and Hansen continued to put pressure at the point of attack, which resulted in a steal and feed to Clair Cote (11 points) for a pair of free throws. Bausha and Hansen each picked up a steal and an offensive putback by Avery Fuller resulted in a three-point play to give Milford a 34-29 lead.

“We knew it was going to take everything we had defensively. We had to hold the score down and we had to take care of the ball,” Davidson said. “We knew we just couldn’t get beat on the boards. We had Claire Cote, Avery Fuller and Elly (Nassy) in the paint. Their heads were above everybody going for the boards. They were phenomenal."

Milford grabbed a 12-9 lead through the first quarter and the score remained that way until nearly five minutes into the second as both teams struggled to find the net.

Cote netted the first points of the quarter with a pair of free throws before Derryfield’s Anna Fazelat scored the quarter’s first field goal with 1:34 remaining. Milford’s Ellianna Nassy and Derryfield’s Angie Kenison (10 points) traded buckets to lead Milford with a 16-13 halftime lead.

“They have some length in the front which is hard to get by and sometimes we were relying on kids who hadn’t been in this kind of situation before so that plays a bit of a role,” Derryfield coach Courtney Cheetham said. “We didn’t rebound well. When you don’t get rebounding stops, its hard to get scores on the offensive end."