The Milford girls basketball team celebrates its big 37-35 win over fellow Divison II contender Derryfield Tuesday night in Milford. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

MILFORD – Signature win?

Perhaps, but at the very least, the Milford High School girls basketball teams’s 37-35 nailbiter of a triumph Tuesday night over fellow Division II contender Derryfield gave the Spartans a good feel for what things will be like in March.

“It was really intense,” said Milford’s Avery Fuller, who led the 12-3 Spartans with nine points. “We really wanted to knock them off because they’re in the first place spot. We really wanted to be that team. They were coming off a loss and we wanted to give them another loss.”

The game, like is usually the case between two good teams, had its momentum swings. The Spartans jumped out to an 18-10 lead in the second quarter and Derryfield recovered for a 14-2 run for a 24-20 lead at the half.

Then no one could score for almost half the third quarter after which the Cougars held on to a 28-27 lead.

But down the stretch was the only chapter worth reading. With 1:05 left, Milford’s Alexia Bausha calmly sank two free throws to tie things at 34. Derryfield’s Anna Fazelat gave the Cougars a 35-34 lead with one out of two freebies with 32.2 seconds to play, but Milford’s Ellianna Nassy gave the Spartans a 36-35 lead with a runner with 15.2 seconds left to the roar of the crowd.

Time out Derryfield after the Cougars managed to get over the halfcourt line. But with 6.2 seconds left, the Cougars (14-2) were called for five seconds on the inbounds thanks to the tight Milford defense. Fuller hit one of two free throws with two seconds left for a cushion.

“I can’t say enough about the senior leadership on this team,” Milford coach Mike Davidson said. “It’s what’s carried us to where we are, the reason we are where we are. Not just because of their talent, but the way they don’t let themselves get out of a game ever.”

It wasn’t a work of art, but it didn’t have to be. The Cougars and Spartans had just four field goals each the entire second half. Erin LaFlamme led the Cougars with 11 points, mainly with her work inside. Tia Ferdinando added nine, but she had fouled out during crunch time.

“Sometimes it’s just a game of inches, right?” Derryfield coach Courtney Cheetham said. “They came up with a couple of loose ones, they came up with a couple of rebounds that we didn’t have. They hit a couple of shots down the stretch, and we had a couple of turnovers that we don’t always have. It is what it is.”

Bausha and Shea Hansen each had seven points while Nassy and Lulu Maguire had six apiece and Trinity Millner added a bucket.

But defensively the Spartans came up big.

“We’re proud of our ability to give teams three or four different looks in a game,” Davidson said. “We run that 1-2-2 press, that disrupts a lot of teams.”

And when Derryfield was setting up for what it thought it would be its final shot, the Spartans didn’t let Fazelet get the ball, helping to force the turnover.

“We talked about that,” Davidson said. “Don’t let No. 3 (Fazelat) get the ball, No. 2 (Ferdinando) was out of the game. So we knew it was going to run through No. 3.”

Milford’s Shea Hansen drives by Derryfield’s Angie Kenison during Tuesday night’s key Division II clash in Milford. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Milford’s Shea Hansen drives by Derryfield’s Angie Kenison during Tuesday night’s key Division II clash in Milford. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

It has to be a confidence builder for the Spartans, whose only two losses in a stretch of 12 games were by a total of seven points.

“We’ve had so many games like that against the top teams,” Davidson said. “It’s very, very good for our confidence. … There’s a lot of work ahead.”

“That’s all right,” Cheetham said. “We’ve got to learn, right? The ones we’ve got to win are in the playoffs, so we’ve got to learn from these and move on.”

And both teams will do just that, right into March – which it felt like last night.