> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Bedford girls basketball hangs on to beat Pinkerton
- URL: https://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/bedford-girls-basketball-hangs-on-to-beat-pinkerton/
- Published: 2013-02-16T17:53:50.000Z
- Updated: 2013-02-16T17:53:50.000Z
- Description: BEDFORD – No matter how well a basketball team can shoot from the outside, its not going to hit every single one.
- Author: Joe Marchilena
- Tags: Division II, Winter Sports, Bedford, Division I, girls basketball, Pinkerton, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-18 04:44

BEDFORD – No matter how well a basketball team can shoot from the outside, its not going to hit every single one.

But in the first half of Friday’s game, the Bedford High School girls basketball team was making every shot and it coach Sue Thomas was getting nervous.

“You always know at some point ... ,” Thomas said.

At some point those shots stop falling, but against Pinkerton Academy, the Bulldogs were able to hang on to the lead and score enough down the stretch to win comfortably, 55-39.

![Bedford's Rachel Collins pulls up for a shot over Pinkerton's Brandi Bonneau during Friday's game. For more photos, go to the Photo Album.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/bc/58/bc5866d0-9fd9-4113-b959-670d6f16471d/content/images/www-nh-highschoolsports-com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/jmbhsbball021513-b15-1.jpg)

Bedford's Rachel Collins pulls up for a shot over Pinkerton's Brandi Bonneau during Friday's game. For more photos, go to the Photo Album.

McKenzie Brown led the way with 17 points and Rachel Collins added 16 for Bedford (14-2 in Division I), as the two combined for 23 points in the first half and helped the Bulldogs end the first quarter up 21-4.

“We got off to a bad start, and this is the second game in a row,” Pinkerton coach John Barry said. “Against Bishop Guertin (on Tuesday), we got off to a bad start, and you can’t get in a hole like 11-0 or 13-0\. Bedford can shoot, boy can they shoot. They just didn’t miss at all in the beginning.”

Brandi Bonneau and Colleen Fortier each had nine points for the Astros (14-2), who dropped their second in a row. Pinkerton, which was the last undefeated team in Division I, finished with a four-game stretch against the other top five teams (Bedford, Bishop Guertin, Nashua North, Londonderry).

“That’s an adventure, but you learn stuff,” Barry said. “(The Astros) worked hard to come back. We’ve got tough kids.”

Collis scored Bedford’s first seven points of the second quarter in 1:47 to put the Bulldogs up by 18 points. But the rest of the quarter belonged to Pinkerton, as the Astros outscored Bedford 14-6 to cut the lead to 10 points at halftime.

Pinkerton held Bedford to seven points in the third quarter, thanks to some better perimeter defense.

![Bedford's McKenzie Brown puts up a shot.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/bc/58/bc5866d0-9fd9-4113-b959-670d6f16471d/content/images/www-nh-highschoolsports-com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/jmbhsbball021513-b44-1.jpg)

Bedford's McKenzie Brown puts up a shot.

“We just adjusted the personnel,” Barry said. “We had a couple of kids who weren’t defending well on Brown. They weren’t coming out on her and she was scoring easily. If you don’t defend against her, she’ll put it in the basket. We put more pressure on her and that helped. The kids rotated a little better and did the things they were supposed to do defensively.”

Of course, it helped the Astros that the Bulldogs started to go cold.

“We’re a good shooting team, but to shoot that well for that long, and what happened was that we were shooting so well, we stopped crashing the offensive boards,” Thomas said. “We had no body under the boards, so when we starting missing, they had to get back into that. We did a better job in the second half of feeding our post players, and not necessarily having them score off it, but just playing an inside-outside game. It got us back into rhythm.”

But not before Pinkerton made it a four-point game to start the fourth quarter. A layup by Bonneau made it 41-37, but the Astros would only manage two free throws for the rest of the game.

Bedford finished the game on a 14-2 run, including six points from Brown in the final 2:13.

“We just never let down,” Thomas said. “I saw a lot of leadership from my girls. McKenzie (Brown) and Haley (Driscoll) just in the post, they kept talking and yelling things out. Rachel Collins stepped up huge for us.”