Bedford girls basketball holds off Pinkerton to clinch No. 1 seed in D1 (video)

BEDFORD - Sue Thomas expected there might be a slow start Thursday night for the Bedford High School girls basketball.

But the Bulldogs coach didn't think it'd go the way it did early against Pinkerton Academy. After honoring the team's six seniors before the game, it took Bedford almost six minutes to get its first point on the board, and at the end of the first quarter, it had just four.

In the end, the game turned into the defensive battle both coaches thought it would, and Bedford was able to hold off Pinkerton in the final moments for a 47-43 win in a Division I game.

The win not only keeps the Bulldogs (17-0) perfect record intact, it also clinches the No. 1 seed, and first-round bye, in the division for Bedford with a week left in the regular season. Pinkerton (14-2) will likely need to win at least one of its final two games to secure the No. 2 seed, but will also have a first-round.

"It was an emotional night for our team," Thomas said. "I wasn’t surprised we started slow. I was surprised that the ball would not go in the basket early on. I kept looking up and it wasn’t falling for them either."

Alyson Fillion led Bedford with 15 points while Lizzy Stevenson added 13 points, including two baskets in the final two minutes that helped the Bulldogs stay in front of the Astros. Mia Roy was also in double figures with 10 points, two of which came at the free throw line with 21.4 seconds to go to make it a four-point game.

Pinkerton got a game-high 19 points from Brooke Kane, as she was 12 of 15 from the line, and Alicia D'Onofrio added nine points, as the Astros had their 12-game winning streak snapped. Despite that, Pinkerton coach Lani Buskey felt good about how the Astros competed throughout the night.

"This was an intense environment and you hung around," Buskey said of what she told the team. "One play differently, and we take the game. I’m proud of my girls. Bedford is a great team and for us to hang around with them, it means we’re a great team, too."

The Astros had a chance to get closer at the end, taking a timeout after Roy's free throws to try to set up a play that would make it a one-possession game. Instead, Bedford's defense clamped down and time ran out before Pinkerton could get a shot off.

"The plan was to get down there as quick as possible and we chose the play we thought would get us the quickest hoop," Buskey said. "Then we were going to full-court press, try to get a five-second count, and if the ball came in, we were fouling instantly. That was our plan. It just didn’t work out. It’s experience. Knowing my team, next time, they do it right."

Pinkerton led 9-4 after one quarter but Bedford went on a 9-2 run to open the second to take a 13-11 lead. The game was tied six times in the quarter but after the Bulldogs went up 20-18 with 2:18 left in the half, the Astros closed on a 7-1 run to go up 25-21 at the break.

Two free throws from Kane to open the third gave Pinkerton a 27-21 lead, the largest of the night for either team, but Bedford responded with five straight points to cut the lead to one.

Included in that stretch was a possession for the Bulldogs that lasted more than a minute thanks to three offensive rebounds. Fillion grabbed the final rebound and completed a three-point play to make it 27-26.

"You can’t give Bedford three chances," Buskey said. "They will score and you will get a foul, and that’s what happened to us. We gave them too many chances."

The offensive rebounding was something the Bulldogs were able to keep going in the second half, somewhat to the surprise of Thomas.

"Our tenaciousness on the offensive boards was something I haven’t seen out of my players," she said. "If nothing else, they were tipping it to keep the ball alive. If we keep that part of our game up, I’ll be happy about that. We have been trying to get them to crash the boards. A lot of them were tips and then chase down the ball."

Pinkerton was able to stay a possession ahead for most of the third until a basket by Allison Morgan tied it at 33 with 1:17 left in the quarter, and Fillion gave Bedford the lead with another putback with six seconds to go until the fourth.

The back-and-forth play continued throughout the quarter, with the lead changing hands four times. Kane tied it at 41 with a free throw, but after another long offensive possession, Stevenson slashed to the basket for a layup that made it 43-41 Bedford with 1:52 remaining.

Kane answered at the other end to tie back up, but Stevenson got open for a jump shot that put the Bulldogs ahead for good with 1:24 left.

"I was in a zone right there," Stevenson said. "This is crunch time and we needed to make some big plays. I just ended up with the ball and I was in the right position and I was wide-open."

The Bulldogs got the ball back and the Astros were forced to foul, sending Roy to the line for a one-and-one that put the game away.

With the top seed wrapped up, Bedford will try for an undefeated regular season for the second time in program history against Winnacunnet on Tuesday.

"Four years ago, we went undefeated and lost the championship game," Thomas said. "Going undefeated is never our goal, it’s never our intention. The goal was to finish in the top four and get a first-round bye. We play every game to win and this team just goes for it."