Alvirne's Courtney Anderson, left, battles Nashua North's Lillian Small during the semis of the Nashua Holiday Basketball Tournament Friday at the Belanger Gym. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Party crashers.

The Milford and Alvirne High School girls basketball teams never got the memo that the preferred Nashua Holiday Basketball final for city hoop fans is a Nashua North-South meeting.

Or if they did get it, they rolled it up and tossed it away.

The Spartans, who have big Division II aspirations, rolled out to a 23-6 first quarter lead en route to a 49-35 drubbing of Nashua South. And after that, the Broncos stormed out to a 12-0 start and a 26-10 halftime advantage over North and held on for a 41-29 win. So it will be Alvirne and Milford meeting in the girls final at 3 p.m. today at the Belanger Gym.

City hoop fans will get their North-South game, but it won’t be a final like last year, but rather a noon consolation game.

For Milford, this is nothing new. When the tourney returned in its post-pandemic four-team format in 2022, the Spartans won the title as a sign of the rebirth of its program under coach Mike Davidson. But two years later, this team is even better with high aspirations.

“I told them we have two trophies we want to raise this year,” Davidson said. “One in December, and one in late February-March.”

“Total credit to their team,” South coach John Bourgeois said. “That starting five is really solid. They earned it today,and I think they’re going to have a good season.

“I think we’re in a spot where we’re trying to figure out our identity. We struggled against their press, they’ve got length.”

It was 36-13 at the half, as Avery Fuller scored 15 of her game-high 17 points for the Spartans, whose press created havoc.

“The first half was about as well as I think we can play right now,” Davidson said. “We want to get even better of course.

“The leadership out of Avery Fuller was tremendous. She completely dominated that first half.”

Things evened out over the rest of the game, but South never really put a dent in things. Shea Hansen and Ellie Nassey added nine each for the Spartans, while Karina O’Donnell led South with 12 points on four 3-pointers (the Panthers had eight). Nicole De Jesus added nine.

Milford’s Shea Hansen drives on Nashua South’s Brooke Berger during the semis of the Nashua Holiday Basketball Tourney Friday at the Belanger Gym. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

In the second semi, the Broncos may not have run away and hid like they wanted as the Titans cut the deficit to 10 a couple of times in the fourth quarter, but the clock was always in Alvirne’s favor.

Courtney Anderson led 4-0 Alvirne with 11 while Julia Adams added 10. Aidan Walker led the Titans (0-4 overall) with nine points while Madelyn Tino had eight.

Now it will be an inter-division battle of two unbeatens, with Milford 3-0 overall.

“It wasn’t easy, and things got sloppy at times, but we secured the hard-fought win,” Girginis said. “Now we move on to the championship game against a top-tier and hard-working Milford team. Should be a fun one.”

Don’t tell that to the Panther or Titan fans, who yesterday were saying Bah Humbug.