Bedford girls basketball rolls past Bishop Guertin in rematch of D1 title game

NASHUA - Monday night's high school girls basketball game between Bedford and Bishop Guertin was about as big as regular-season meetings in December get.

A rematch of teams that played in last year's Division I championship game - won by Bedford - and with both teams are expected to be in the mix again this year, there were of course some nerves on both sides at the start of the game.

The Bulldogs took care of their jitters right away, winning the opening tip and scoring four seconds into the game.

For the Cardinals, it took a bit longer. Shots from the field wouldn't fall, shots from the foul line wouldn't either, and in what had to seem like the longest half of basketball ever on the Bishop Guertin bench, Bedford led 22-0 before the Cardinals got a shot to go down.

Bedford's lead was 30-6 at halftime and the Bulldogs maintained the advantage in the second half to win 48-25. Rachel Collins had a game-high 16 points, all of which came in the first half, while Ali Glennon had 10 points and McKenzie Brown added eight.

"The first half, I thought we played great," Bedford coach Sue Thomas said. "They were ready and we came out strong. I think we wore them down, which is why they had trouble shooting. We play better offense when we’re playing really intense defense. It’s the nature of our team. I think coming out aggressive was good."

Getting the early basket was big for Bedford (2-0) to help calm the players.

"We were nervous about this game, so getting that very first basket was great," Thomas said. "Everybody stepped up. Bri (Purcell) and Ali (Glennon) were responsible for Jamie (Sherburne) and I thought they did a great job. We kind of got them to come out of their game pretty quickly."

And when the Cardinals started missing shots, it snowballed, including at the free throw line, where Bishop Guertin was 0 for 12 in the first half. The two teams combined to shoot just 7 of 30 for the game.

"When you go 0 for 12 (from the free throw line), and I don't know how many shots rolled around the hoop, and they just don't fall for you, it's demoralizing," Bishop Guertin coach Jeremy Faulkner said. "The girls look at the scoreboard and see that (Bedford) is pulling away. They played well and they played hard. If we had hit those free throws and a couple of those bunnies around the hoop, it would have been a whole different halftime speech."

Gigi Piercy led the Cardinals (2-1) with eight points while Emma Williams hit two 3-pointers for six points. Bishop Guertin's first points came on a basket by Sherburne and the Cardinals outscored Bedford in the second half, 19-18.

"We can play with them," Faulkner said. "If we had capitalized, we probably wouldn’t have come out with a win, but we would have been a little closer."