Girls basketball: Sophie Milloy, Midland roll past cold-shooting Marquette

OTTAWA – The scrambling, sloppy and cold-shooting first half of Marquette’s Tri-County Conference encounter with Midland on Thursday night was, in the parlance of basketball purists, “dirty.”

But in the third quarter, the Timberwolves cleaned up the contest just fine by putting the ball in the hands of senior Sophie Milloy.

After the two clubs shot a chilly 8 of 48 from the field and combined for 20 turnovers for an unsteady 12-9 Midland lead at halftime, Milloy exploded for the first 14 points of the third period to break out her team to what would be a one-sided, 42-21 victory over the Crusaders in their own Bader Gymnasium.

Milloy in the second half matched Marquette’s offensive output in the last two quarters and bested the hosts’ overall scoring by ending the night with 27 points. That figure went along with her game-best 10 rebounds as the T-Wolves jumped to 7-4, 4-2 in the league.

The Cru, meanwhile, never found their stroke and finished shooting an icy 12.2% (6 for 49) from the field to go with a 41-30 deficit on the boards and 20 turnovers, dropping them to 7-3 overall, 4-1 in the TCC.

“After an ugly first half, we let their best player take control of the game on us, and we could never catch up.”

—  Eric Price, Marquette girls basketball coach

Lilly Craig, playing with a bruised shooting elbow suffered in Saturday’s game against Newark, finished with 16 of the home team’s points, but on uncharacteristic 4-of-14 shooting.

“Obviously, we didn’t shoot very well and we had entirely too many turnovers,” Marquette coach Eric Price said, “but it was their length. I told them Midland was long, but they were longer than they expected, and that really bothered us.

“There was some stuff we worked on last night that maybe didn’t register, and when we got out here we got sped up, and it turned into one of those nights. After an ugly first half, we let their best player take control of the game on us and we could never catch up.

“We have to toughen up a bit. They were getting the loose balls, and when we went into the lane we’d get nudged and lose control of the ball or missed a layup. … We just have to flush this one and move on.”

Marquette led 4-0 and took its last lead at 9-8 on a Katelyn Davis free throw with 4:08 left in the second quarter. However, the Cru would not score again until a pair of Craig free throws with 2:30 left in the third and ended up with a stretch of more than 18 minutes with only one field goal.

In the third, Milloy started her run with a 3-pointer from the left wing and made five of her next six shots from the field, taking the T-Wolves from that three-point halftime margin to a 26-9 lead in five minutes.

Craig netted seven of her points in the last 2:30 of the third to pull the hosts back within 26-16, but the wind clearly had been taken from their sails.

Two baskets by 6-3 freshman Anna McGlasson down the stretch helped seal the deal and gave her eight points.

On the other side, Davis popped in three points, and Avery Durdan two for the rest of MA’s points.

“Sophie’s a ballplayer,” Midland coach Xavier Warren said. “In years past, she’s had to do a lot by herself. … So I told her at halftime she had to trust her teammates more, because she was trying to do too much early on. She needed to take what they’d give her and know where her shooters are, and she adjusted really well in the second half.

“She put herself in a position to be successful, and it was really fun for us to watch.”