Lebanon
Milliken complied. Now he’s reaping the benefits of a superb campaign, having been named the NHIAA Division II player of the year by the New Hampshire Basketball Coaches Organization on Sunday night.
Milliken went from a corner shooter to a part-time point guard and primary scoring threat to help the Raiders counter the younger Matte’s nearly three-month absence. Milliken goes into Wednesday’s D-II semifinal against Hollis Brookline at UNH’s Lundholm Gym as the Upper Valley’s No. 3 scorer and the top offensive source on a team that’s lost only once in 19 league games.
Milliken’s recognition tops a bumper crop of area basketball honors. Lebanon’s Tim Kehoe earned the D-II girls basketball coach of the year award, while Sunapee senior Katie Frederick captured the D-IV girls hoop player of the year title in NHBCO balloting.
“Coach was telling me he was going to vote for me for player of the year, so I was really hoping I was going to get it,” Milliken admitted during a break from practice at Lang Metcalf Gym on Monday afternoon. “I was really surprised; there’s some really good players in D-II. I thank all of the other coaches who voted for me.”
At a minimum, the Raiders could have expected double-digit offense from Milliken this winter. His role changed when K.J. Matte went down; instead of sitting in the corner waiting for feeds from Matte or senior guard Graham Chickering, Milliken joined Chickering in guiding Lebanon’s attack.
The Nebraska native’s speed and athleticism — traits displayed for Lebanon football as well — have served him well on the court, too. Punctuated by Saturday’s 26-point effort in a D-II quarterfinal win over Goffstown, matching his season and career high, Milliken trails only South Royalton’s Nicholas Howe (27.05 points per game) and Mascoma’s Alex Schwarz (24.55 ppg) in Upper Valley scoring at 17.14 ppg. That’s a big improvement over last year’s respectable 10.46 average.
“I thought it was deserving,” Kieth Matte said on Monday. “If anyone could see him at practice all year, when things weren’t going well, it was a no-brainer. Everybody knows how fast he is. He’s made some big shots during the course of the year. (There’s) the great defense. In practice and off the court, he’s really just gone off the charts with being a great player. I couldn’t be happier for him.”
The Springfield College-bound Milliken, owner of 905 career points heading into Wednesday night, has hit for at least 20 points five times this winter and has been good for a least a dozen points in every game for the Raiders (18-1 league, 21-1 overall). He’s fast enough to lead the break, but Milliken has also buried 47 3-pointers to lead the team. He also has hops, capable of reaching the rim despite his 5-foot-10 stature.
“Losing K.J. was a big loss for our team,” said Milliken of last year’s D-II player of the year. “Graham Chickering really stepped up as well (10.1 ppg, nearly double last year’s average). We just have a lot of really good chemistry on our team. We run through our plays, so it really helps me to score.”
Chickering, also a senior, earned a spot an all-senior all-Division II first team. Hanover’s Benny Gantrish (fourth in scoring, 15.32 ppg) made the second team.
Beyond that, two other basketball stalwarts earned major NHBCO awards on Sunday. Kehoe, Lebanon’s longtime girls basketball coach, took home his fifth coach of the year award, by his estimate, after guiding the Raiders to the top spot in the D-II standings and the sixth state girls hoop championship in school history in Saturday’s 44-35 defeat of Hollis Brookline. Along the way, Kehoe recorded his 500th career win on the bench, a stretch that included short stints at Pittsburg and Newport before settling in at Lebanon.
Sunapee’s Frederick took D-IV girls hoop player of the year honors a season after landing on the NHBCO all-state first team in her division. The senior forward recorded her 1,000th career point last year, her 1,000th career rebound this season and didn’t lose a game over her final three varsity campaigns. She closed her high school basketball career with a 79-52 rout of Colebrook in the March 4 final, a game in which Frederick scored 26 points and secured 28 rebounds.
The rest of the area’s selections to the NHBCO all-state list:
D-III boys: First team — Alex Schwarz, Mascoma; second team — Noah Spaulding, Parker Smith and Zach O’Brien, Stevens.
D-IV boys: Second team — Sam Pushee, Woodsville; honorable mention — Garrett Olsen, Woodsville.
D-II girls: First team — Joslin Wainwright and Rebecca Wright, Lebanon; second team — Maddie McCorkle and Diana Schwarz, Hanover.
D-III girls: Honorable mention — Alexis Hurd and Kyrstin Kibbey, Newport.
D-IV girls: First team — Faith Larpenter, Sunapee; second team — Sydney Clark, Sunapee, and Lily Kinder, Woodsville; honorable mention — Mary Grzanna, Sunapee.
An Ice End: Veteran Hartford High boys hockey coach Todd Bebeau was tabbed Division II coach of the year by his divisional peers in Vermont prior to the conclusion of the postseason last week.
Bebeau’s Hurricanes won their first Vermont D-II regular-season title since 2009 this season, finishing 16-5-1 after dropping a home semifinal to No. 4 North Country at Wendell A. Barwood Arena last week. D-II coaches bestowed all-state honors on four of Bebeau’s charges, putting forward Ben Rouillard (area-best 55 points) on the first team, forward Jordy Allard (44 points) on the second team, goalie Richie Morrill on the third team and defenseman Patrick McGlone on the honorable mention squad.
Rouillard, Allard and Morrill will represent Hartford at the Essex Rotary All-Star Game on March 25, the senior showcase from which this summer’s Vermont Make-a-Wish Classic roster will be culled.
Dream Machine: The Vermont Basketball Coaches Association warmed up for next week’s Senior All-Star Games at Windsor High School by releasing its Division III-IV Dream Dozen boys basketball list.
The selection represents 12 of the top underclass hoopsters in Vermont, athletes that will be expected to become significant players on their teams next winter. The Division III-IV list doesn’t lack for area representation: It includes Rivendell’s Owen Pelletier, Sharon’s Sam Knoerlein, Oxbow’s Ben Emerson and the Windsor duo of Seth Balch and Dakota Page.
The VBCA plans to release more Dream Dozen teams as the Vermont high school season closes. The Senior All-Star Games will be held on March 25 in Windsor.
Snow Jobs: Fresh from sweeping both disciplines at the NHIAA Division IV Alpine state meet at Cannon last month, Sunapee senior Will Austin ripped to a pair of top-10 finishes at the Eastern High School Championships at Attitash last weekend.
Austin produced the top New Hampshire time in Saturday’s giant slalom, placing fourth overall in 2 minutes, 9.66 seconds. Wooodstock’s Kyle Weirether placed ninth (2:11.52).
The New Hampshire D-IV skimeister, Austin added an eighth in Sunday’s slalom, his two-run time of 1:23.32 again leading the Granite Staters. Weirether placed 29th on a day that saw Vermont repeat as meet champion.
Austin’s senior cousin, Madeline, also had a good Eastern meet representing the Lakers. She placed 18th in the GS (2:20.43) as Sunapee teammate and NHIAA girls skimeister Jacqueline Balch raced to an eighth-place slot (2:18.31) to lead New Hampshire. Austin had the best Upper Valley result in the girls slalom on Sunday, placing 30th (1:34.92). Vermont’s girls also repeated as Eastern champs.
New Hampshire’s top high school cross country skiers will have to wait a day to determine their best athlete. Today’s NHIAA Nordic Meet of Champions, originally scheduled for the Dublin School, has been put off until Wednesday at Proctor Academy because of today’s expected snowstorm.
Greg Fennell can be reached at gfennell@vnews.com or 603-727-3226.