WILMINGTON — When asked whether he’d like his team to opt into the state tournament this season, Milford High boys’ basketball coach Lamarr Shorts didn’t even hesitate.

With the regular season shortened due to COVID-19 restrictions across the state, the DIAA opted to hold open boys’ and girls’ basketball state tournaments this season, leaving every school eligible for the playoffs for the first time since 1988.

In Tuesday night’s first round, the 40th-seeded Bucs fell to No. 25 A.I. duPont High, 73-53, to put an end to the Bucs’ up-and-down season.

With the double-digit playoff win, which marked the first playoff appearance for both schools since the 2018-19 season, the Tigers (6-9) move on to face No. 8 Appoquinimink High in Thursday night’s second round. Tip-off is slated for 6:30 p.m. in Middletown.

The victory also avenged a 59-56 home loss to the Bucs on Feb. 18, 2020.

“Hat’s off to A.I., those guys played really well tonight,” said Shorts. “We knew the style of game that they would play and we knew if we were going to come in and win this game we had to not allow them to play that style but they played it really well … they shot the ball really well and it’s always hard when you’re giving up three pointers every three or four possessions, it’s going to be hard to get back from there.”

Given the hurdles faced by the Bucs (3-11) from the very beginning of the year, Shorts was eager to let his young kids see the court for just one more game.

Without a single senior on the active roster and the lone junior facing his first bit of varsity action, Milford used the season of strictly Henlopen Conference competition to get the young core some much-needed court time.

“Absolutely no question at all,” Shorts said. “My A.D. asked me whether we’d like to be in and I said ‘yes.’ I hadn’t even asked the players or the coaches yet, I was like ‘yes, we’re in.’ Give us every bit of experience that we can get for the year.

“It’s been a really rough year for us — record-wise it’s been a rough year. But there’s a lot of things that we were able to take from this year. We’re building, we knew we were going to be young coming into this year … We’re taking some big steps in the right direction.”

Junior Shamar Walker led the scoring, putting up a game-high 27 points for the Tigers, including a 17-point fourth quarter performance to seal the victory. Senior Zakee Newton added 20 points.

As a team, the Tigers knocked down nine three-pointers. Three of those long balls were drained by Ja’Quan Bishop.

Sophomore Andrew Kravitz led the scoring for the Bucs, knocking down three three-pointers and tallying 21 points. Fellow sophomore Ethan Wilkins dominated the boards, tallying 15 points, reeling in more than 10 rebounds and blocking a handful of shots under the basket.

Milford started the game off with a 7-0 run before the Tigers bounced back with a 7-0 run of their own to end the opening quarter with a 13-12 lead.

It appeared the Tigers were beginning to run away with it late in the second quarter, building up a 30-19 lead with 1:33 remaining until halftime, but the Bucs clawed back in it and stole the momentum by scoring five of the half’s last seven points.

Eventually, the three balls became too much for the young Milford squad to overcome. An eight-point halftime deficit turned into a 53-29 deficit by the end of the third quarter and the Tigers cruised to the 20-point victory behind Walker’s fourth quarter scoring barrage.

“I am excited about the challenge (of the next round),” A.I. duPont coach Sam Anderson III said. “It felt normal, if for just two hours, it just felt normal for these kids … It was a decent basketball game with plenty of excitement ... For today, these kids are allowed to have a few more hours of excitement before they get ready for Thursday.”