Keene boys basketball outlasts Bedford to pick up win (video)

BEDFORD - The Keene High School boys basketball team just wouldn't go away.

Every time it looked like Bedford had wrestled away momentum in the second half of Friday night's game, the Blackbirds came storming right back.

Down five points with under four minutes to play, Keene ended the game on a 12-6 run, including a basket by sophomore Tate Mate with about seven seconds left that gave the Blackbirds a 66-65 win over the Bulldogs in a Division I contest.

Matte finished with a game-high 22 points, including the final eight points of the game for Keene (4-1), which bounced back after its first loss of the season. Two other players finished in double figures for the Blackbirds, as David Erunski added 14 points and Noah Timmer had 10.

"Very proud of our guys," Keene coach Kevin Ritter said. "We rallied as a team and a lot of guys made contributions. Tate Matte and Noah Timmer especially really stepped up and produced a lot for us on the offense end."

The teams went back and forth all night in a game that saw 14 ties and 11 lead changes, with Keene's six-point halftime advantage the largest lead of the night.

But in the end, it was Bedford's inability to make a stop that did the Bulldogs (3-3) in, according to coach Mark Elmendorf.

"It was all about getting stops," the coach said. "That was the whole halftime (talk), getting stops defensively. I thought our perimeter guys didn’t play as well as they could have defensively. It hurt us. I thought we did a nice job on their big kid, but defensively we didn’t guard well enough on the perimeter.

"We played hard. They hit shots and we didn’t get enough stops. We can’t let up that many points. (Matte) played a great game. We came back like we always do, but they had one more shot than us."

Justin O'Neill finished with 17 points to lead Bedford, while Richard Ravenelle came off the bench to add 13 and Harrison LeGoullon finished in double figures with 11.

After Keene had a 9-4 lead to open the game - with Matte scoring all nine points for the Blackbirds - Bedford answered with a 12-5 run to take a 16-14 lead early in the second quarter. Neither team would lead by more than three until Keene closed the half on a 6-0 run to go up 29-23 at halftime.

The Bulldogs started the second half with a 6-0 run of their own to tie the game, and extended it to a 14-6 run, getting baskets inside and in transition, to go up 37-35.

"I thought we did a good job of ending possessions in the first half," Ritter said. "They did miss a couple of shots to end the first half, which definitely played into our hands. Then to start the second half, they had some success getting the ball inside. They’re a very big, physical team, so they were able to get interior touches, so we had to adjust."

Ravenelle put Bedford up 45-41 on a layup with 55 seconds to go in the third quarter, but Matte was fouled on a made basket at the other end to cut the lead to two. The sophomore missed the free throw, but Erunski got the rebound and scored to tie it at 45 going into the fourth.

The teams continued to go back and forth to open the quarter, as the lead changed four times in the first 3:05. A 3-pointer by Bedford's Connor Butts gave the Bulldogs a 55-52 lead and started them on a 7-2 run that made it 59-54 Bedford with 3:48 to play. A putback by Keene's Alex Opsahl and a jumper by Timmer cut Bedford's lead to one, but Ravenelle put the Bulldogs up by three with another layup with 2:40 to go.

Matte converted a three-point play at the other end to tie the game, and after a timeout and a missed shot by Bedford, he hit a 3-pointer to give Keene a 64-61 lead with 1:31 to go.

O'Neill hit two free throws to get Bedford back within one, and after a Keene timeout with 1:03 to go, the Blackbirds tried to run down the clock. But Opsahl was called for an offensive foul, giving the ball to Bedford, and a floater by Thomas Morgan put the Bulldogs on top 65-64 with 16 seconds to play.

Bedford called a timeout to set up its defense, and knowing that the Bulldogs would pressure the length of the court, Ritter wanted to get the ball to Matte.

"In that scenario, with them picking up full (court), we wanted to space out and play," the coach said. "Look for Tate to get penetration, take his own shot if it’s there, if it’s not, kick and make a simple basketball play."

Matte got into the lane, avoid a couple of defenders, and put up a shot that hit nothing but net to put Keene ahead for good.

"We wanted to attack the rim, try to get a foul and try to get to the free throw line," Matte said. "I looked for my shot and I found it."

Bedford immediately took a timeout with 6.5 seconds left, but a 3-pointer at the buzzer by Timothy Greene was off the mark.

"That’s a great win for us," Ritter said. "Bedford has been a quality program for many years. Hopefully we can carry this momentum into next week, but every game is a new game and you’ve got to approach it that way."