Bedford boys basketball outlasts Spaulding to reach D1 championship game

DURHAM - Mark Elmendorf felt like his Bedford High School boys basketball team played pretty good defense during Monday's Division I semifinal.

The Bulldogs coach just didn't realize how good.

No. 3 Bedford held No. 2 Spaulding well below its season average in scoring, controlled the defensive boards and made its free throws down the stretch to beat the Red Raiders 47-35 at Lundholm Gym at the University of New Hampshire.

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The win gives Bedford a spot in the Division I championship game on Saturday, where the Bulldogs will face No. 1 Portsmouth at 3 p.m.

"I just thought we played great," Elmendorf said. "We had a great game plan and we really executed well."

The Bulldogs (17-3) got 15 points and nine rebounds from Liam Greene, who was 10 for 11 from the free throw line, including 7 of 8 in the final two minutes. Troy Meservey added 13 points and eight boards, as Bedford grabbed 30 defensive rebounds and held Spaulding to 22.8 percent shooting from the field.

That included holding Cal Connelly, the Division I Player of the Year, to 11 points on 3 of 17 shooting. The senior was scoreless in the first half and was held without a field goal until early in the fourth quarter.

"I thought we did a great job on Connelly and that's the key to the game," Elmendorf said. "We were picking him up, we had a spot on the floor and we were going to guard him within that range. Then he does everything. He'll go to the hoop, he'll shoot 3s, but we needed to stay in front and we did that."

Keagan Calero and Arie Breakfield (13 rebounds) each added nine points for Spaulding (16-4), but the Raiders fell behind in the first half after failing to convert on the looks they got.

"I thought in the first half we got some pretty good shots, we just didn't make them," Spaulding coach Tim Cronin said. "In the second half, we started to press a little bit. The shots aren't going, we didn't take care of the ball a little bit.

"We come back at the end of the third to get it within three and then we have three turnovers in a row. It seemed every time we came back, we'd give up a putback or there was always something there to propel them to keep that lead at five, six or seven (points)."

The Raiders got on the board first, but Bedford went on an 8-0 to take a lead the Bulldogs wouldn't give up. A 3 by Calero got Spaulding back within three points, but Bedford closed the quarter with another 8-0 run and led 16-5 at the end of one.

With the offense struggling, Spaulding increased its pressure on defense in the second quarter, and held Bedford to five points  to cut the Bulldogs' lead to 21-16 at halftime.

"It looked like they were trying to double," Elmendorf said of the Spaulding defense. "That was a key to the game because they really picked it up and I thought they were going to come out the same exact way in the third. They did and we had a great halftime and were able to withstand all their pressure."

A basket by Breakfield cut the lead to three to open the third, but Bedford outscored Spaulding 7-1 over the next four minutes. But with the Raiders having a tough time cracking the Bulldogs zone, Connelly threw up a deep 3-point attempt and was fouled by Bedford's Connor Crowley.

Connelly made two of the three free throws and Spaulding started to chip away at the Bedford lead. A 3-pointer by Connelly to open the fourth made it a four-point game, and after two free throws from Greene, another basket from behind the arc by the senior cut it three.

After a pair of empty possessions by each team, Greene hit a 3 of his own, and in the final 1:45, made his free throws and grabbed four rebounds.

"They were coming back and we had to keep increasing the lead," Greene said. "We had to keep getting stops and at the foul line, they're freebies, we just had to do our job.

"I just got to the line, I didn't really hear anything or say anything. I just (looked) at the hoop, in the zone, ready to make them for my team because I had to."

Bedford moves on to a championship game for the first time since 2012, when the Bulldogs made their only final appearance, losing to Portsmouth in the Division II title game.