Despite different look, same results so far for Bedford girls basketball

BEDFORD – With Lana McCarthy no longer patrolling the paint in dominant fashion, the Bedford High School girls basketball team knows that it will take a different approach to succeed if it wants to defend its Division I championship this winter.

It’s a challenge the Bulldogs have embraced and thrived at in the first three games of their defense.

The latest conquest for Bedford came on Friday night when the Bulldogs closed out the first quarter and never looked back in cruising towards a 64-32 victory over Bishop Guertin (1-1). Bedford (3-0) has outscored its opponents by an average of 33 points heading into the holiday break.

“They came out and made a bit of a statement (Friday), because everybody keeps saying Lana is gone and everyone says it’s not going to be the same Bedford and we can pick them off,” Bedford coach Kevin Gibbs said. “We’re different, but we’re still a really good team and you saw that (Friday). A lot of kids can score the ball, we share the ball nicely.”

McCarthy graduated as the school’s all-time leading scorer with 1,272 points and is currently 11 games into her freshman season playing for Purdue University. Bedford also graduated a couple of other key pieces in Megan Muir and Devlyn McDonald.

Bedford senior co-captain, and Boston University commit, Kate Allard knew that it was going to take an effort from everyone to elevate their game to replace the production that was lost. It was a matter of putting a new spin on how the Bulldogs can win games.

Allard led Bedford with 16 points on Friday while Sarah Muir added 14 points. Allard eclipsed the 1,000-point milestone during last week’s season-opening 70-19 win over Trinity and is currently third on the girls all-time scoring list (1,041 points), behind McCarthy and Isabella King (1,115).

“I think we definitely are making sure that everybody is crashing the boards because Lana was really huge on those boards,” Allard said. “Especially this year, we’re really trying to play fast and run on a lot of teams.”

Junior co-captain Annie Zink is loving the new fast pace of play the Bulldogs are adapting too and knows they're just scratching the surface to the possibilities.

“Lana was our cheat play last year, so it’s definitely a different style of play,” Zink said. “We’re running a lot more and started pressing more with a full-court style of defense. It’s a really fun change of pace and style.”

Allard said it's more of a reactionary style of the play that highlights the athleticism Bedford possesses.

“We want to run fast and not overthink things and not be robotic,” Allard said. “Just see what the defense is giving us and react.”

Gibbs noted that he purposely took his team to Vermont to play a few games against tough competition to challenge his team’s approach and get more experience for a team that only has two seniors in Allard and Karina Kamineni.

“An aggressive defense is a big part of what we’re going to do this year,” Gibbs said. “In terms of our weapons, there was a tendency to find Lana. Now with her not there, they have a tremendous trust in each other and they’re willing to pass the ball. We tell the kids ‘If you feel it, take it’. We’ve got shooters up-and-down our lineup.”

The Bulldogs are clearly ready for everybody’s best shot to take their crown.

“We know there is a lot of pressure on us after last year, so we’re trying to push each other to our best potential every day,” Zink said.