Milford's Lexi Bausha and Avery Fuller (20) celebrate as do the rest of the Spartans after their semifinal win over Derryfield on Wednesday in Derry. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

DERRY – The last time the Milford High School girls basketball team was in the state finals, Ronald Reagan was President.

Yes, folks, it’s been that long, 1981 when they lost the Class L title to Manchester Central. But the last time they won a championship, Jimmy Carter was in the Oval Office – 1979.

And now, they have a chance again, as the No. 2 Spartans will take on No. 4 Oyster River in the Division II finals at noon at the University of New Hampshire’s Lundholm Gym, courtesy of a defensive performance for the ages in a 37-29 semifinal win over Derryfield Wednesday at Pinkerton Academy’s Hackler Gymnasium.

“Today’s the 100th day since the season started on Dec. 2,” Milford coach Mike Davidson said, his team now 17-3 and winners of eight straight. “They all came to me and said ‘We’re winning the state title this year.’ We talked about team goals, and what do you want to accomplish this year and they’re like, ‘Are you kidding me? State title.'”

If they play defense like they did yesterday, it could happen. The No. 3 Cougars (17-4) could never get untracked offensively. Ironically, they did lead 29-28 thanks to a Chloe Bremberg’s runner with 5:20 to play.

Those would be the Cougars final points of the day. They had scoreless stretches of 4:02 to start the game, 6:36 in the second, and their fatal slumber to end the game.

“We kind of started to notice we needed to play better defense, we needed to lock in, we needed to get the ball and score,” Milford senior Avery Fuller said. “We needed to get them tired, and that’s exactly what we did.”

The Spartans led 16-13 at the half, and took a 26-25 lead into the final eight minutes. One minute after Derryfield’s go-ahead trey, Milford’s Lexi Bausha hit a 3-pointer that gave the Spartans a 31-29 lead that they would never relinquish.

“Honestly, when I hit that, it was up from there,” Bausha said. “The intensity really went up.”

That was the last field goal, it turns out, for either team as the Spartans finished their scoring with six free throws, three by Fuller.

Claire Cote led the Spartans with 11points, while Bausha had eight, Fuller and Ellianna Nassy seven each, Shea Hansen three and Lulu Maguire a point. Derryfield was led by Angie Kenison’s 10 points (two 3’s), eight by Bremberg and seven from Anna Fazelet.

Milford’s Avery Fuller tightly guards Derryfield’s Anna Fazelat during Wednesday’s Division II semifinals at Pinkerton Academy in Derry. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Milford’s Avery Fuller tightly guards Derryfield’s Anna Fazelat during Wednesday’s Division II semifinals at Pinkerton Academy in Derry. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

The Cougars simply couldn’t attack the basket.

“They have some length in the front which is hard to get by,” Cougars coach Courtney Cheetham said of the Spartans, who beat the Cougars 37-35 last month in Milford. “Sometimes we were relying on a lot of kids who hadn’t been in this situation before. I think that kind of plays a little bit of a role.We didn’t rebound well so we don’t get rebounding stops it’s hard to score on the offensive end, things like that.

“And sometimes we’re able to use our pressure to create easy turnover opportunities to score. I don’t even think we had a transition basket. Kudos to them.”

“You know you’re in for a dogfight defensively when you play them,” Davidson said.

And now they’ll tangle with the No. 4 Bobcats, who upset No. 1 Laconia 39-36. Oyster River beat Milford in Milford 63-58 back on Jan. 24.

But that may just fuel the Spartans more.

“I’ve been saying it to you all year,” Davidson said. “This is a group that they just don’t want their season to end. You’ve got four seniors who can feel it in their hearts that ‘This is my last shot at competitive basketball.’ They don’t want it to end.”

Or at least when it does, have it end the same way it did on Wednesday.