Bishop Guertin girls basketball knocks off Bedford to win D1 championship (video)

MANCHESTER - Meghan Cramb was hoping for an opportunity to make up for some missed free throws.

Fortunately for the Bishop Guertin High School girls basketball team, she didn't have to wait long.

With Saturday night's Division I championship game against Bedford tied in the final two minutes, Cramb came up short on two free throws that would have given the Cardinals the lead. While getting back on defense and trying to put the shots out of her mind, the junior got her opportunity.

Cramb stepped in front of a pass intended for Bedford's Nikki Tucci near the top of the key and raced the other way for a breakaway layup that broke the tie. She added four free throws in the final 17 seconds to help No. 1 Bishop Guertin beat No. 3 Bedford 35-31 to win the Cardinals' second title in five years at Southern New Hampshire University.

"I was really nervous after not hitting those free throws, and then I thought 'I've got to put it away,' like (Bishop Guertin coach Brad Kreick) has told me this whole season," Cramb said. "When I got the steal, I thought I needed to score this for my team. When I got to the foul line, I took my time. I tried not to look at anyone. I just stepped up and got in the zone and focused on hitting those shots."

Cramb finished with a game-high 14 points and eight rebounds for Bishop Guertin (21-1), which finished the year on an 18-game winning streak, while Abbi Field added seven points, five of which helped the Cardinals erase a five-point deficit to tie the game going into the fourth quarter.

"Abbi Field was huge for us in the third," Kreick said. "We just wanted to pound the ball down into the paint, see if we could just establish something and she did a great job getting us back in it."

Bedford (18-4) got 11 points off the bench from Alexis Meservey, as she hit three 3-pointers in the first quarter to help the Bulldogs take an early lead. But no one else had more than five points for Bedford, including Tucci, who finished with four on 2 for 14 shooting.

Part of that was the defense played by Cramb, who drew the assignment of following Bedford's go-to player, especially with point guard Bri Purcell out with an injury.

"We had Cramb on (Tucci) almost the entire game," Kreick said. "We basically said, let’s try not to let that kid beat us. She gave us a scare when we played them a couple of weeks back in the fourth quarter. When a kid like that gets hot, it's hard to stop her. We wanted to try to keep her in front of us and make her work for everything she got. Meghan did a great job on her and we just found a way."

Bedford led by three at halftime and got the lead up to five in what turned into an offensive struggle in the third quarter. The Cardinals turned the ball over eight times in a span of five minutes, and the Bulldogs went up 22-17 on a jumper by Jenoyce Laniyan with 1:49 left in the quarter, forcing Kreick to call a timeout.

"We told them you guys have to keep working," he said. "You've been working all year long, you knew this was going to be a tough team, and they just kind of found a way. We've been down before and figured out a way. It's just one possession at a time. Defend, get stops, come down and get good quality possessions, and just work your way back into it."

Bishop Guertin did that, with Field leading the way. The junior made one of two free throws to make it a four-point game and added layup with 1:02 left in the third to get the Cardinals within two, 22-20.

After a missed 3 at the other end, Bishop Guertin set up for a final shot, and Field's running hook shot in the lane tied the game with 14 seconds left in the quarter.

The Cardinals 12-2 run continued into the fourth quarter, as they went up five on a three-point play by Meghan Donovan that made it 29-24 with 4 minutes remaining.

But the Bulldogs weren't done, as they went on a 5-0 run of their own, getting another basket by Laniyan and free throws from Meservey and Alyson Fillion to tie it at 29 with 1:59 left.

Cramb was fouled by Meservey at the other end, leading to the two missed free throws and the steal that started the championship-clinching run.

"She's been working hard on her shooting, so I had confidence in her," Bishop Guertin's Marie Laplante said of Cramb. "That's the way she is. She's a hard worker and she doesn't dwell on the mistakes. If anything, she was going to make up for it, and she did."