Bedford, Portsmouth advance to D2 basketball title game

DURHAM – The Bedford High School boys basketball team dominated the boards, made half its shots in the second half and limited Hanover to 25 percent shooting from the field.

But with a little more than a minute left, the Bulldogs were in trouble.

Thanks to 21 second-half turnovers and several missed layups in the first half, No. 5 Bedford allowed the top-seeded Marauders to hang around throughout Wednesday’s Division II semifinal game and it almost cost the Bulldogs.

Two quick turnovers – Bedford couldn’t get the ball to midcourt on both – led to five Hanover points, cutting the Bulldogs lead in half with 1:16 remaining. But Bedford went 6 for 6 from the free throw line in the final 46 seconds and the Bulldogs held on for a 54-46 win over the Marauders at the University of New Hampshire.

The win puts Bedford into the championship game for the first time in the program’s four-year history, where the Bulldogs will face No. 2 Portsmouth, which beat No. 11 Coe-Brown in the other semifinal, on Saturday at 1 p.m. also at UNH.

Trevor Fahmy led the Bulldogs (17-4) with 21 points and 15 rebounds and Bedford had a 50-28 advantage on the boards, but 30 turnovers limited Bedford to just 12 field goal attempts in the second half.

“It gets a little scary,” Bedford coach John Langlois said. “We had a game plan for different situations. I was confident that we could get through that.”

Bedford put itself in that position by shooting 37 percent from the field in the first half, with most of those misses coming on layups. After a back-and-forth start, the Bulldogs took control of the second quarter and led 29-17 with 1:30 to go before halftime.

The lead could have been more, but Bedford’s missed shots combined with two turnovers and a 4-0 run by Hanover made it an eight-point game at the break.

“It was difficult in that last minute,” Langlois said. “High school kids certainly have trouble playing 32 minutes of maximum intensity, but it’s easier said than done. We had a lapse in that final minute of the second quarter.”

The Bulldogs made up for it early in the third, getting the lead back to 10 before both offenses shut down. For the better part of four minutes, the only point scored was a free throw by Fahmy that made it 36-25.

A dunk by Collin McManus, who had 12 points and seven boards, put Bedford up 40-25 as the third came to an end.

And then the turnover problems started for the Bulldogs. During one stretch Bedford had five possessions in a row that ended in a turnover, a turnover, a missed dunk, a missed 3 and then another turnover.

Hanover couldn’t do much with its opportunities because it couldn’t figure out Bedford’s zone. The Marauders shot just 21 percent in the second half, including 4 of 16 from behind the 3-point line. Hanover (18-3) got 16 points and 11 rebounds from Dan Gorman, but no one else had more than seven points.

But with 1:40 remaining, Alex Krass hit the second of two free throws to make it a 48-38 lead for Bedford. The Marauders stole the inbounds pass, got a bucket, forced another turnover and got a 3 from Ryan O’Rourke and suddenly it was a 48-43 game.

Bedford turned the ball over five more times in the final minute, but Hanover couldn’t take advantage and the Bulldogs made their free throws to hang on to the win.

In the other semifinal, Portsmouth opened up a close game in the fourth quarter, besting Coe-Brown 55-46.

With the Black Bears keeping Kamahl Walker in check (10 points on 3-for-13 shooting), Gregg Tsougranis stepped up for the Clippers (19-2) with  17 points and nine boards. Billy Lane also had 14 points and four assists.

Portsmouth led by seven at halftime, but Coe-Brown outscored the Clippers 13-8 in the third quarter to make it a two-point game going into the fourth. A 3-pointer by Damon Doyle pulled Coe-Brown within 44-42 with 4:41 left in the game, but Portsmouth went on a 6-0 run to take its biggest lead of the game.

The Clippers will be playing in the title game for the second straight year and third time in the last four seasons. Portsmouth and Bedford also played in the Division III football championship game last fall.