The Milan High School girls basketball team couldn’t have asked for a better scenario for an upset.

Riding the momentum of beating previously-undefeated and No. 8-ranked Ida in the Class B district final, the Big Reds got to return to its home court for its first regional game in over a decade.

The raucous student section tried to create a home-court advantage, but a traveling Portland fan bus gave the visitors as much a of an edge in that category. The deep bench and physical defense of the Raiders took care of the rest as the No. 3-ranked Raiders prevailed 54-41.

“We battled,” said Milan coach Jeff Scott. “What a way to go out as a senior, regional game at home. If you’re going to lose it might as well be then.”

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Not only did the Big Reds (19-4) battle, they led for the entire first quarter. Portland (23-1) tied the game 14-14 with 6:30 left in the half after Taylor Roe took a steal coast-to-coast for a lay-in.

Riker led all scorers with 17 points. Roe finished with 14.

With the game again tied 22-22, Sierra Riker hit a 3-pointer from the corner with under a minute left. More damaging than the shot was the knee injury suffered by Allie McAfee on the ensuing play. Milan went into the half trailing 25-24, but minus its starting center, as McAfee was carried off the court.

“When you have played well all year, when you take key components out of that well-oiled machine, something’s going to go wrong,” Scott said.

Portland’s picked up its physicality in the third quarter, especially on Milan’s regional player of the year, Lindsey Lammers. Lammers had her head slammed in the court on a loose ball situation in the quarter and had suffered a bloody nose after taking an elbow to the face.

“They were just hounding her pushing her and she was never in the second half was able to get into the flow of her game and I’m sure it was by design,” Scott said. “He’s a great coach, its what you do to great players. I’m sure he said let’s see how physical these refs are gonna let us play and they played her physical.”

“Everything starts with her, so we wanted to make sure she had to work hard to get from point A to point B, wanted to make her work hard coming off screens put two bodies on her and contest everything,” Kimball said.

The physical play wasn’t just effecting Lammers, as Milan shot 0-for-8 from the field in the quarter until a desperation Sarah Ramsey 3-pointer banked in at the buzzer. Portland outscored Milan 17-8 in the frame.

“It just took us a little while to gauge how the game was going to be called, gauge what we were going against,” said Portland coach Ray Kimball. “As soon as we recognized what we were going against we made a couple tweaks defensively and made some key stops and those key stops led to some run outs and we were able to get a couple easy hoops.

“We knew Milan’s bench was suspect and we knew if we could get a fast pace going and they had to get into their bench it was going to be a good night for us.”

Lammers crossed up her defender with 4:19 left in the game and stepped back to hit a fade-away 3-pointer to bring the score to 44-37. After a Portland turnover, Lammers came off a screen and had an open look from behind the arc, but the shot was just off and Roe raced down the court for a quick transition bucket.

Within seconds of it nearly being a four-point contest, Portland went up 46-37. Lammers was issued a technical foul shortly after for arguing with an official. She led Milan with 16 points.

Sam Harmon had 13 points. Lani Ernst, who also was carried off the court following an injury, and McAfee combined for six points. They averaged 18 combined throughout the season.

“I trust our trainer … if she said they could play, then they could play, but I’m sure that was a bit of them telling her they were going out there, period,” Scott said, further appreciating the toughness of his four senior starters.

“You know what these girls did, they beat an undefeated Ida team two years in a row, won a district championship battling Ida and Gabriel Richard, won a league championship with a powerhouse New Boston Huron. Couldn't ask for anything more.”

Pete Cunninghamcovers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached by e-mail at petercunningham@annarbor.com, or by phone at 734-623-2561. Follow him on Twitter @petcunningham.