Big third quarter lifts Bedford girls basketball past Portsmouth in D1 semis (video)

EXETER - The Bedford High School girls basketball team needed someone to step up to start the second half of Tuesday's Division I semifinal against Portsmouth.

So the Bulldogs did what they've done all season and turned to their safety valve - each other.

In a game where points were tough to come by, seven players scored points for No. 2 Bedford, including a trio of players in the third quarter, who helped turn a one-point game at halftime into a 45-24 win over No. 3 Portsmouth at Exeter High School. The win puts the defending-champs back in the D1 final, where the Bulldogs will face No. 5 Bishop Guertin at 4 p.m. Sunday at the University of New Hampshire.

"No body is talking about us," Bedford coach Kevin Gibbs said. "We’ve been that forgotten team all year. Everybody is keying on Pinkerton and Bishop Guertin. Portsmouth is going to make it happen and they were awesome. At the end of the day, the best part is, there is no pressure on us. No body is paying attention to us. We are right where we want to be."

For most of the first half, that results looked like it might be in doubt, as Portsmouth used a 9-1 run to end the first quarter with a four-point lead and then held the advantage right up until after the final seconds of the half. Bedford's Lyla Stein hit two free throws after time expired in the second quarter to give the Bulldogs a 14-13 lead at the break and they opened the second half by scoring 21 straight points.

Lana McCarthy led Bedford (18-2) with 15 points and Emma Kasyjanski was also in double figures with 11 points while Kate Allard chipped in six. Those three each took turns scoring all of the Bulldogs' points in the third quarter, as Bedford took a 35-15 lead into the fourth.

"When the year started, everyone was like ‘we don’t have Isabella (King),’" Gibbs said. "There was no safety valve. Now they’ve figured out that the safety valve was themselves. That’s how and why this year progressed, because they started trusting each other."

Portsmouth (18-3) failed to break the 40-point mark for just the third time this season, with all three times resulting in a loss. Margaret Montplaisir, Avery Romps and Maddie MacCannell each had six points to lead the Clippers, who held Bedford to just three points over a seven-minute stretch in the first half.

"We weren’t getting a ton from the perimeter, but we were doing a good job getting it inside and getting some layups," Portsmouth senior Mia Smith said. "Defensively we were doing a good job rebounding and shutting down their post, which we knew was going to be a big thing in order to win."

But while the Clippers were playing well on defense, they couldn't take advantage on the offensive end and led 13-9 on a basket by MacCannell with 4:13 remaining in the second quarter. They wouldn't score again until a jumper by Romps with 19.4 seconds to go in the third.

Catherine Penick scored all five of her points for Bedford in the second quarter, with her 3 making it 13-12 Portsmouth with 2:10 remaining in the half. Stein put the Bulldogs up at the break and McCarthy scored six straight to open the third quarter to give Bedford a 20-13 lead.

Then it was Kasyjanski's turn, as she recorded two putback and then hit a 3-pointer to make it 27-13. Allard followed with a pair of free throws and a basket, sandwiched around another jumper by Kasyjanski, and the Bulldogs led 35-13 in the final minute of the quarter.

"I think we came out strong and then we got ourselves into a hole in the third quarter that was just too hard to get out of," Smith said. "I’m proud of how everyone fought. Everyone fought until the very end. I think we have a lot to be proud of even though the outcome wasn’t what we wanted."