Bedford boys basketball rallies in final minutes to beat Nashua South

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NASHUA - On one side was Mark Elmendorf, saying his Bedford High School boys basketball team needed perfection and luck to pull out a win Friday night over Nashua South.

On the other, Nate Mazerolle reflected on a perfect storm of miscues that doomed the Panthers.

The two combined into a blown lead late by South and a remarkable comeback by Bedford, as the Bulldogs overcame an eight-point deficit in the final moments to stun the Panthers 49-48 in Division I action.

Max Chartier's baseline jumper with 18 seconds left gave Bedford its first lead since the start of the fourth quarter, as the Bulldogs finished the game on a 13-4 run after trailing 44-36 with under two minutes to play.

"It was perfect at the end," Elmendorf said. "Max missed a few shots that he will 99.9 percent of the time, he will hit. He was angry at himself, but he pulled it through at the end. We play hard and we try to do the right things. We got lucky."

Chartier finished with nine points for Bedford (4-1) while Nolan Anderson had 14 points and Liam Greene was also in double figures with 11 points.

South (1-2) got a stellar performance from Kevin Genao, who finished with a game-high 19 points, including three 3-pointers, as the Panthers made eight shots from behind the arc. Max Osgood added nine for South while Richie Mercado had eight.

But it was the final moments that will stay with the Panthers, at least until practice on Saturday.

"Other than the last three minutes, I thought we did very well," Mazerolle said. "We executed, we wanted to play fast, we wanted to get them on our big floor because everyone knew what they did to Merrimack.

"We wanted to get in transition and we wanted to go score because we knew that zone was very good. We knew scoring would be difficult. Up until those last three minutes, I thought we did a lot of good things, so I'm proud of them in that regard."

After seeing Bedford hold Merrimack to just 13 points in a win on Tuesday, South came in wanting to get out and run to try to force the Bulldogs out of their zone. But Bedford led 13-11 at the end of the first quarter and stretched that lead to 19-11 just 1:45 into the second.

And that's when Genao started to take over. The senior point guard hit a jumper and repeatedly led the Panthers on the break, twice making acrobatic layups to help South end the half on a 14-2 run to go up 25-21 and force Bedford out of its zone.

"We practiced all week to try to shut him down, but I thought we did a good job on him," Elmendorf said. "We switched defenses around halftime. We went to man-to-man from playing zone, obviously. (Genao) is good. He's great with the ball, he's fast, he's hard to guard. He can stop on a dime."

The Bulldogs opened the third quarter with a spurt to take a 28-26 lead, but a 3 by Mercado put South back ahead, as the lead changed hands six times in the final 3:48 of the quarter. Bedford took a 35-34 lead into the final frame, but the lead didn't last long.

Genao hit a 3-pointer to start the scoring and Mercado followed with a tip-in to put the Panthers ahead 39-35. After a free throw by Anderson, another 3 from Jake Wilcox and a jumper off the glass by Osgood gave South a 44-36 lead with 4:26 to play.

The Panthers were able to possess the ball for more than two minutes after that, but ended up missing a 3-pointer and coming away with an empty long possession.

"The shots are zone breakers and you need to do that," Mazerolle said. "We just don’t want to keep taking them when we're leading by eight."

South kept that lead until Greene made a pair of free throws with 1:42 left to get Bedford within six points. The Bulldogs fouled at the other end, but Tony Agor missed the front of a one-and-one and Bedford grabbed the rebound, getting a layup from Anderson at the other end to make it 44-40.

After a South timeout, Genao scored to put the Panthers back up by six, but a foul on Agor sent Nick Mokas to the line, where he made one of two free throws. Anderson put the rebound back in to make it 46-43, but Alex Amigo made two free throws to put South ahead by five.

A layup by Mokas made it 48-45 with 47 seconds left, and on the inbounds pass, Aimgo thought he was about to get fouled and tried to cover the ball. Instead, a Bedford player tied it up for a jump ball, giving the Bulldogs possession.

Another foul on South, this time by Genao, sent Greene to the line, where he made both free throws to make it a one-point game with 29.1 seconds to go.

The Panthers took another timeout, but they couldn't get across midcourt, as Anderson stepped in front of a pass to Osgood, and the ball eventually ended up in Chartier's hands. The junior hit the open shot, giving Bedford the lead, but South was able to get the ball to Genao with time ticking down.

The South senior waited to see what might be open and decided to drive to the basket. Two Bedford players collapsed on him, sandwiching him on the way to the basket as the ball came loose, but the officials called a jump ball with 1.3 seconds left.

South got the ball back, but ended up knocking the ball out of bounds with one-tenth of a second remaining.

"That was the perfect storm of everything you don't want to do," Mazerolle said. "Fouling, taking 3s when you're up eight, offensive rebounds on a free throw, air passes against pressure. I keep saying we're not young, we're inexperience, but it was our experienced guys making those mistakes. As frustrated as we are all, we will move beyond it."