Bedford girls basketball holds off Pinkerton to win D1 championship

DURHAM - The Bedford High School girls basketball team had been in the spot before.

The Bulldogs held the lead going into the fourth quarter of the Division I championship game in each of the previous two seasons and came out at the end as the runner-up.

Not this time, as No. 1 Bedford continued to put points on the board while holding No. 2 Pinkerton in check at the other end on the way to a 60-41 win in Sunday's title game at Lundholm Gymnasium at the University of New Hampshire.

The win was Bedford's third in the title game and first since 2021, and gave this Bulldogs' seniors a pair of titles to bookend their high school careers.

"I felt I owed them everything we could possibly do to get them out the door with another plaque," Bedford coach Kevin Gibbs said. "We’ve been in this game four years in a row. We won the first three quarters last year and the year before and couldn’t finish the job. The kids did what they’ve been capable of all year."

Lana McCarthy led Bedford (21-0) with 20 points and eight rebounds, despite sitting for almost 14 minutes in foul trouble. Kate Allard added a double double with 14 points and 11 boards and Sarah Muir chipped in 12 points and six steals.

"As a team, we come into everything together," Allard said. "We definitely had a chip on our should from the past two. We’ve been here before, but we hadn’t won, so that was extra motivation to get it done this year."

Pinkerton (19-2) got 14 points from Brooke Benz, including 3 of 4 from behind the 3-point line, and Kaylee Dupuis had 13 points, six rebounds and three blocks.

The Astros got off to a strong start, shooting 58.3 percent from the field in the first quarter, but that number fell to 23 percent over the final three quarters.

"Our legs got tired," Pinkerton coach Lani Buskey said. "Shots were short and we started to feel the pressure. We started taking deep 3s as opposed to running our sets. They didn’t fall, and as we got tired, our kickbacks in transition got a little slower. The fourth quarter did us in."

After Pinkerton 34-30 on a 3-pointer by Sydney Gerossie midway through the third quarter, Bedford came back with a 13-2 run to take a 43-36 lead into the fourth. The Bulldogs stretched the lead to as many as 11 points before the Astros cut it to 49-41 with 5:25 left on a 3 by Benz.

But those would be the final points for Pinkerton, as Bedford was able to close out the game with its defense.

"The key for us is keeping our heads," Gibbs said. "We were very amped and that caused some turnovers and missed layups that we normally would make. We knew that our conditioning, and not only our ability to pressure defensively, but to get out and run, would win the day for us in the long run. That has been our calling card all year."

Pinkerton got to an early lead, making it 18-14 late in the first quarter following a 3 by Benz and a three-point play from Dupuis. It went back to a four-point lead, 23-19, on a three-point play by Benz with 7:09 left in the second quarter.

But that's where the score would stay for more than five minutes.

"We were struggling offensively," Gibbs said. "There were a couple of timeouts, and every timeout, I said ‘look, yeah we haven’t scored, but they haven’t either.’ Defense keeps you in games. We were down four and it stayed there. We kept talking about the fact that we knew what we had in the tank."

Allard and Muir finally broke through for Bedford, scoring all the Bulldogs' points on a 7-0 run to close the half up 26-23.

McCarthy, who saw the final four minutes of the first half with three fouls, scored to open the third quarter, but Elizabeth Lavoie answered, getting Pinkerton its first points in almost a quarter by hitting a 3.

Dupuis followed with a putback to tie it at 28, and moments later, McCarthy picked up her fourth foul.

Three more points from Lavoie, who also was in foul trouble in the first half, and a 3 by Gerossie capped an 11-2 run for the Astros and gave them a 34-30 lead. Pinkerton had a couple of chances to stretch it further, but was unable to.

After a couple of empty possessions, Bedford regrouped and scored six straight points to go back in front. A basket by Dupuis tied the game, but the Bulldogs ended the quarter with seven more unanswered points to take the lead for good.

"I think our biggest thing was stepping it up on defense," McCarthy said. "They were a very fast and athletic team and have a ton of good shooters. When we made the adjustment of watching their backdoor cuts and getting out on their shooters, I think that took the game."