Big second-quarter run lifts Bedford girls basketball past Nashua South (video)

NASHUA - The Bedford High School girls basketball team needed a moment to regroup.

Despite getting off to a fast start, the Bulldogs were getting outrebounded and outphysicaled by Nashua South, and Sue Thomas felt her players needed a chance to hit the reset button.

Bedford responded coming out of the timeout, going on a 15-0 run and never looking back as the Bulldogs remained undefeated with a 55-27 win over the Panthers in Division I action.

Alyson Fillion scored 14 points in her first full game back from an ankle injury and Mia Roy was also in double figures with 11 points for the Bulldogs (12-0). Alexa Dyer and Allison Morgan also had seven points apiece for Bedford.

"We played really well," Thomas said. "We started out, they were playing more physical than we were. They were beating us on the boards a little bit there. We talked about it and fixed that, so I think we really adjusted well."

The Bulldogs held a 17-7 lead after one quarter, but a jump ball and a turnover helped South scored the first five points of the second quarter, cutting Bedford's lead to 17-12. But after Thomas called for a timeout just 1:19 into the frame, the Bulldogs responded by scoring the next 15 points to go ahead 32-12, which included seven points from Fillion.

"She just said they were getting rebounds and putbacks which were just easy points we were giving up," Fillion said of what was said in the timeout. "We needed to focus on boxing out and not letting them have second chances. Once we focused on that, we were able to limit their chances and we were able to keep playing on offense and get a good lead back."

Bedford led 33-16 at halftime and held South (4-7) scoreless for the first 4:30 of the third quarter.

Iruka Obinelo led the Panthers with eight points, all of which came in the first half, and Julianna Martin recorded seven points while Aryanna Murray had five.

"They played great," South coach Dave Hogan said. "The intensity was good. (Bedford) is an awesome team, they really are. They’re everything we want to be and then some.

"Everything we threw at them, they knew what to do. We threw seven defenses at them and they ran something different every time, and they got a good shot. That’s what good teams do. We’ve still got a long way to go on that stuff, but that’s all right. It’s one step at a time."

Bedford led 39-16 when Murray hit a pair of free throws and followed that up with a layup to get the lead down to 19 points. But Morgan answered right back for the Bulldogs, getting a layup of her own and then hitting a 3-pointer.

Overall, Thomas felt Bedford's shooting performance was much improved from Tuesday's win over Manchester Central, a game in which the Bulldogs tied a season low with 40 points

"For the game, I think we shot about 22 percent against Central (on Tuesday), so this was a good rebound, just finding our shot again," she said. "The one thing about my team so far is we’ll let teams come back, but it doesn’t seem to phase them. It seems to get them into a different gear."