Milan's Season Ends in District Final

The Milan Big Reds' season came to an end Friday night at the hands of Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard in the MHSAA District Tournament Finals. The Big Reds offense seemed off-kilter all night as the Fighting Irish won 56-36.

The first half saw Milan stumble on both ends of the court. They played aggressively on defense, denying the Fighting Irish inside, but Irish guard Miles Lockridge hit three three-point shots in the first quarter and added a fourth in the second. Offensively, Milan was out-of-sorts early, making mental mistakes with the basketball and forcing up quick shots. The Big Reds went in down at half 32-19.

“At some point, you have to pick your poison. The way we looked at it was, we were going to take our chances and hope they didn’t get hot on the outside. We doubled and tripled the post, but Lockridge hit the first one, got his confidence going and got hot,” said head coach Josh Tropea.

The second half was just as frustrating for Milan. Getting out to cover jump shots left the Big Reds inside presence isolated against the Fighting Irish’s taller, physical big men. Tory Martinsen, CJ Turnage and Spencer Dennison battled gamely but were unable to establish themselves inside, either on offense or defense. They got beat up on the boards and were unable to convert in the paint on offense.

“Once we had to start closing out and getting to the shooters, they started throwing it inside and getting easy ones,” said Tropea.

Andre Duffin led the Big Reds’ scorers with 12 and Turnage added 7. 

“I have no complaints about what my kids did today, I’m extremely proud of how hard my kids played. I thought they played hard, never quit. They gave me everything I asked for, but the better basketball team today won,” said Tropea.

The Big Reds finished with a 15-7 record.