Bedford pulls away late to beat Pinkerton, claim first D1 boys basketball title (video)

DURHAM - There were several things the Bedford High School boys basketball team could have tried change up facing Pinkerton Academy a second time in Sunday's Division I championship game.

Instead, Frank Moreno and the Bulldogs coaching staff decided to stick with what got them there, and it paid off.

Bedford turned to senior Aiden O'Connell and junior Luke Soden, its leading scorers, in the fourth quarter, and the pair delivered. The pair combined for all but two of the team's 25 points in the final eight minutes, as the top-seeded Bulldogs pulled away for a 66-56 win over No. 2 Pinkerton in the title game at the University of New Hampshire's Lundholm Gym.

It's the first boys basketball title for the Bulldogs (20-1) in their third championship appearance, and for Moreno, who was an assistant coach for the previous two, it was a moment to remember.

"I told the kids before we left for here, look in the gym, because I want this to be the last time we ever play in here without a banner that has our name on it," the Bedford coach said. "Getting out and running, that’s been our identity all year and we weren’t going to change anything. We were going to get out and run as much as we could, try to wear them out in the fourth quarter, and fight on the inside."

And get the ball to O'Connell and Soden, both of whom played the entire 32 minutes.

Soden finished with a game-high 27 points to go with seven rebounds and four steals, while O'Connell scored 13 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter. The pair also combined to go 17 of 19 at the free throw line.

"They’ve been our horses all year long," Moreno said. "We changed up the offense in the second half. We spread out, gave them the ball and let them go to work. They did that."

Pinkerton (20-2) got 16 points and 15 rebounds from Jackson Marshall, but most of that came in the first half, when the Astros overcame an early deficit to lead by two points at halftime. Anthony Chinn added 13 points and seven rebounds while Sean Jenkins had 11 points and Tyrone Chinn had nine points, four boards and four assists.

The Astros controlled the boards, outrebounding the Bulldogs 33-20, with 12 of those on the offensive end, but Pinkerton turned the ball over 16 times, which led to 22 points for Bedford. The Bulldogs also had a 14-0 edge in points in transition.

"I thought we had a hard time executing a lot of the time," Pinkerton coach Dave Chase said. "They did a good job taking Jackson away, but we took a lot of shots that we didn’t want to take. They’re a good club. We just really could not defend the two kids. They got to the hoop at will and made shots. A lot of our opportunities fell off.

"I thought we did a really nice job in the first half of rebounding. We didn’t do quite as well in the second half, which allowed them to get some better looks. They made their foul shots. Our rotations were just a little slow. Usually, we take two or three charges a game and we had four or five blocks (Sunday)."

Bedford got out to a 14-4 lead in the first six minutes, but Pinkerton got going late in the quarter, getting back-to-back 3-pointers from Jenkins and Marshall. That carried over into the second, as a 3 by Tyler Herland cut the lead to one, and moments later, a three-point play by Marshall gave the Astros their first lead.

A putback by Anthony Chinn capped a 16-2 run by Pinkerton to give it a 20-16 lead with five minutes left in the first half. Bedford came back and tied the game at 21, but the Astros managed to take a 25-23 lead into the break.

"They punched us right off the bat," Chase said. "We settled down, we were able to get the ball in to Jackson a little bit better. We were able to come back and not only tie it up, but take the lead going into halftime. We felt pretty good. We felt like we were all set."

Moreno took the blame for Bedford's struggles in the second quarter.

"Boneheaded call by me putting us in a zone in the second quarter because we gave up a couple," he said. "There was no secret sauce. We’re not going to change what we do, let’s see if we can beat them our way."

The third quarter saw the lead change hands five times while the score was tied five times before Soden scored in the final seconds to give Bedford a 41-39 advantage going into the fourth.

O'Connell opened the final frame with back-to-back baskets, and after Pinkerton responded with two field goals, the senior converted a three-point play and Soden added 3-pointer to make it 51-43 Bedford with 5:33 remaining.

The Astros managed to keep it close, cutting the lead to five on a 3 by Jenkins with 1:10 to play, but those would be the last points Pinkerton would score. Soden and O'Connell went 5 of 6 at the line in the final minute to put the game away.

"It’s been our identity," Moreno said. "Lock down in the fourth quarter, turn up the volume on the defense a little bit, see if we can get to the rim and hit your free throws. Keep it close, keep it close, and then just get out and run. It worked."