Bedford controls second half to beat Winnacunnet in D1 girls basketball semifinals

MANCHESTER – Perhaps the only team that can stop the Bedford High School girls basketball team is itself.

For the second straight game, the Bulldogs battled nerves and excitement in the first half, only to dominate the second half.

No. 2 Bedford outscored No. 6 Winnacunnet 36-12 in the second half of Thursday’s Division I semifinal and rolled into the championship game with a 62-34 victory at Southern New Hampshire University.

Rachel Collins scored 19 points and Brianna Purcell came off the bench to added 10, including the last eight of the first half for Bedford, turning a four-point deficit into a four-point lead at halftime.

“That was huge because we were down by four, I had already taken two timeouts and I really didn’t want to take another one,” Bedford coach Sue Thomas said. “I wanted it to stay close, and then when we went in to the locker room up four, the first thing I said was, that was probably your worst half of basketball and we’re winning.”

The Bulldogs (19-2) shot 36 percent from the floor in the first half, but turned the ball over nine times and watched Winnacunnet’s Melissa MacLeod score 11 points.

After making some adjustments on defense, Bedford held MacLeod to one point in the second half and limited Carly Gould to just eight points total. The Warriors also played most of the second half without point guard Maelan Castro, who was in foul trouble.

“Gould and MacLeod had been our scorers all season,” Winnacunnet coach Cassie Turcotte said. “For them to hold Gould to a low-scoring game hurt us. We depend on those two putting up some points for us. Having (Castro) in foul trouble hurt us. It hurt after her second because she started playing timid.”

MacLeod had a big game against Bedford during the regular season, and after watching her in the first half, Thomas decided to make a change defensively. That, combined with the defense of McKenzie Brown and Haley Driscoll on Gould helped Bedford hold Winnacunnet without a field goal for almost 14 minutes.

“In the second half, we just told Ali Glennon, who was guarding MacLeod, not to help (on defense),” Thomas said. “Don’t leave her and that worked out.

“McKenzie Brown is one of the best post players in the state, but when she needs a break, Haley Driscoll is right behind her. I don’t think any time in the game they were both out. (Gould) was McKenzie’s assignment, unless she was out, and then she was Haley’s.”

The Bulldogs led 12-9 heading into the second quarter, but Winnacunnet (15-6) went on an 11-3 run to go up by five with 3:38 left in the half.

The lead was still four points when Purcell hit a 3 from the top of the key to make cut Winnacunnet’s lead to 22-21. The Bedford freshman then stole the ball from Gould and went coast-to-coast, finishing an old-fashioned three-point play at the other end.

With time running out in the half, Purcell put back an offensive rebound at the buzzer to put Bedford up 26-22 going into the break.

“She has this thing about her where if you know you need to pick it up, Bri will go in and make it happen,” Thomas said. “She’s relentless.”

Thomas felt Thursday’s game was a lot like Bedford’s quarterfinal win over Alvirne, in which the Bulldogs started slow before turning it on in the second half.

“We were so excited, and that is where, in the first half, Winnacunnet has been here before and we were almost too hyped up,” she said. “As long as we could keep it close in the first half, I knew we weren’t playing well, and they did it.”

Bedford will face No. 1 Bishop Guertin in the Division I title game on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at SNHU.