On Tuesday, Milford boys basketball hosted Polytech in their second game of the season. Coming off of a 71-22 defeat of John Dickinson in their opener, the Buccaneers faced a much stiffer test in hosting the Panthers. While Milford may have started off a bit slow, once they found their rhythm, it was a continuous dominance of the visitors in a 73-40 victory.
With Tech running zone defense for most of the game, the challenge for the Buccaneers was to find a way to break it down. It would begin as Milford hit a few three-pointers, with junior Kaisan Bacon leading the way with a game high 16 points, joined by sophomore Mike Mullen as the duo hit four of their first five three-point attempts to start the game. This allowed a little more room for the offense to work inside the paint.
As Milford started to heat up on offense, the defense also began to ratchet up the pressure. The Buccaneers applied pressure on the ball virtually the entire game, forcing turnovers and getting points off of those opportunities. The first half result. would be a comfortable 40-21 Milford advantage. Another Milford player who popped on the stat-sheet was sophomore Adrian Keaton who recorded 10 points and an astounding 15 rebounds.
Speaking with Bacon following the game, while he was happy to be the games top scorer, what mattered most to him was the total team effort.
“The way the game started, I had my opportunities early in the game, but that isn’t what this team is about,” Bacon said. “It’s about everyone pitching in on both ends of the floor and that is what we did tonight. It’s a long season and we have a long way to go, so that means we have to work even harder, and this team is up for that.”
Having transferred back into the district, Bacon is very happy to be back home.
“This is my city and I love being here,” he said. “It’s great to be back here and the support we are getting is amazing.”
Coach Lamarr Shorts was also pleased with the team effort, particularly on defense where the Bucs forced 13 turnovers.
“I was very happy with how we played overall tonight, but make no mistake about it, everything starts with defense,” Shorts said. “There are a lot of things that don’t show up on the stat-sheet, it’s teamwork and effort, which were fully on display tonight. There are still things we need to clean up, we strive to get better every game. I can see already this team has a lot of heart and when you have players that are as committed as everyone on this team, we expect to improve as the season continues.”
Now standing at 2-0, the Buccaneers will host Sussex Tech on December 11 with tip off set for 6:30 PM.
