Milford’s junior guard Josh Roof goes in for a layup on Tuesday, Jan. 17, but it was Roof’s five three-pointers that keyed the Eagles to a win over Little Miami.

The Milford Eagles came into the 2011-12 campaign with a lot of new, albeit talented, blood on their varsity basketball team. The Eagles have shown flashes of their potential as a serious contender in the Fort Ancient Valley Conference, but also have seen that potential escape them in a few close losses.

 

After going 5-5 in the first half of the season, Milford started the second half of their year with a 51-40 win over Little Miami on Tuesday, Jan. 17.

“We think we’re a really talented team,” Milford head coach Joe Cambron said after the game on Jan. 17. “We have a lot of new guys on varsity, but we’re 11 games into the season. All these guys that are playing, they’ve played a lot of minutes.”

The Eagles list five players on their roster at 6-foot-3 or taller meaning there are very few occasions when they do not have a size advantage down low.

Milford’s main big man is 6-foot 7 senior Rob Overbeck who ranks in the top-10 in the FAVC in scoring, rebounding and blocked shots.

“He’s our leading scorer, he’s our leading rebounder, he’s a captain and a senior. He shoots 60 percent from the floor, so us getting him touches was really important,” Cambron said.

Overbeck didn’t get many touches in the first half of the Eagles’ game against Little Miami as the Panthers tried to even the playing field by packing in a two-three zone to keep Milford’s big men from hurting them.

“They had a great gameplan and executed it,” Cambron said of Little Miami. “With one of their best players not playing tonight, that obviously threw them off a bit. They played hard, they were scrapping. The coaches are doing a really good job with the team they have.”

While the Eagles looked for a way to crack the Little Miami zone, their own defensive pressure was causing problems for the smaller Panthers.

Milford switched between man-to-man and zone defenses in the first half, using their length to force Little Miami into turnovers.

“I think early on, our plan was to come out and pressure the ball and get a lot of deflections and keep (Little Miami) on their heels,” Cambron said. “We didn’t want to let them get into a rhythm of attacking the basket and early on we did. We got some shots early, but we weren’t able to extend our lead.”

Even with the Eagles missing some shots in the opening frame, their size advantage gave Milford more shot opportunities. Couple that with their defensive pressure and Milford held a 16-4 lead after the first quarter.

With a little bit of breathing room to start the second quarter, the Eagles intensity lulled a bit. As Little Miami started to chip away at the lead, Cambron switched his defense to a one-three-one zone in order to slow down the Panthers.

Little Miami cut the lead to eight points a few times, but were not able to get any closer as the Milford defensive intensity picked up as well as their ability to hit open shots, led by junior guard Josh Roof.

Roof went six-for-nine from the field, including five-for-six from three-point land to lead the Eagles with a career-high 17 points.

“(He) was really the difference in the game,” Cambron said of Roof’s effort. “For him to be able to knock down those shots when no one else was scoring consistently, that really kept us in the lead because if he’s not hitting those shots, we’re struggling offensively.

“His career game, scoring-wise, really made a huge difference in us being able to stay ahead even though other guys weren’t scoring consistently.”

Roof scored eight first-half points leading the Eagles to a 24-12 halftime lead, something Cambron was happy about with their leading scorer, Overbeck, only accounting for two first-half points.

Little Miami deserves credit for their “never say die” attitude, coming out with intensity in the third quarter and frankly, dominating the first few minutes of the second half with their quick play.

However, with all the effort the Panthers were showing, they were simply overmatched. Whenever Little Miami was able to get the deficit to single digits, Milford would answer with a Roof jump shot or an easy layup down low.

Where the Eagles struggled in the first half getting their big men touches, Cambron made an adjustment in the second half to establish Overbeck in the low post.

“We were trying to get the ball in the high post, giving us a chance to be below their top guys (in the zone) and that would give us a chance to attack three versus two and our size advantage would give us some looks,” Cambron said.

Getting the ball into the high post allowed Overbeck to seal his defender, giving his teammates an easy lob pass over the top that resulted in two points nearly every time down the court.

Little Miami kept fighting, trading baskets with the Eagles through most of the third quarter, once again cutting the Milford lead to eight with a few minutes left in the third quarter. But again Milford responded with back-to-back scoring possessions to open the lead back up to 12.

After three quarters and Milford leading 36-25, it seemed as if regardless of what Little Miami tried, the Milford lead was too big to overcome.

That didn’t stop the Panthers from trying, running two sets to open the fourth quarter that went for field goals. Little Miami implemented a full-court press, but with the Eagles abundance of ball-handlers, the Eagles were able to dispel the press and convert on transition baskets.

The fourth quarter had a nice flow to it with both teams scoring 15 points each, but simply equalling the Milford output wouldn’t get the job done for Little Miami as they fell to 3-9 on the season with the 51-40 loss.

Milford improved to 6-5 on the season and 5-3 in the FAVC with the win, but the Eagles were unable to string that momentum into a win on Friday, Jan. 20 at Walnut Hills as they fell 71-56 to the league leaders.

“In the second half, our goal is to win seven or eight ball games at least where we are contender at the end of the season,” Cambron said.

The Eagles have eight games remaining, beginning with Wilmington on Tuesday, Jan. 24 and Goshen on Saturday, Jan. 28.

Little Miami (2-9, FAVC 1-6) – Mee 2 1 5, Bishop 2 1 6, Graham 4 5 15, Rothermund 3 3 10, Rigdon 2 0 4. Totals: 13 10 40.

Milford (6-4, 5-3) – Roof 6 0 17, Zurschmiede 0 1 1, Farrell 1 0 2, Mayleben 1 4 6, Bullock 1 3 5, Taylor 1 1 4, R. Overbeck 5 4 14, C. Overbeck 1 0 2. Totals: 16 13 51.

Halftime: Milford 24-12. 3-pointers: L 4 (Graham 2, Bishop, Rotherhmund); M 6 (Roof 5, Taylor).