Stevenson gave Bedford girls basketball a needed lift on both ends of the floor

The Bedford High School girls basketball team has shown all season long that it doesn't have one or two go-to players, that just about anyone on the roster can step up when needed.

With eight players who average between 9.5 and 4.6 points per game, the offense can come from just about everywhere, while the defense always seems to be there, even when it looks like the Bulldogs are faced with a bit of a mismatch.

That was the case in Thursday night's 47-43 win over Pinkerton Academy, when Bedford opened the game without a point for more than five minutes.

But even before that, Bulldogs senior Clare Driscoll picked up two fouls in the first three minutes while trying to guard Pinkerton's Brooke Kane. With Driscoll on the bench, Bedford coach Sue Thomas had turn elsewhere for someone to guard the Astros 6-foot post player.

"We ended up putting Lizzy Stevenson, who is 5-7, on Brooke Kane," Thomas said. "She did a fabulous job."

Despite giving up about five inches to Kane, who scored 12 of her game-high 19 points at the free throw line, Stevenson helped hold the junior to just two baskets inside the paint.

"I don’t know if it was my quickness or something like that," Stevenson said. "I had to play my hardest because I know I’m not as tall as her or anything like that. I had to be really tough on her. She has great moves and she’s a great player. I had so much help from my defense. It was a team effort, and I didn’t do it myself."

For a team that had only given up more than 40 points one other time this season, allowing nearly half that to one player could have been disastrous, if not for the way the Bulldogs were able to play defense on the rest of the Astros. No one else scored in double figures for Pinkerton.

"The thing we told them, Brooke and (Pinkerton point guard) Amanda Lemire are going to do their thing, don’t let somebody else step up and have a good game," Thomas said. "We clamped down on defense a bit and took care of that."

Stevenson, who finished with 13 points, didn't just contribute her defense to the win, as she contributed a pair of key baskets down the stretch.

With the game tied at 41 with a little more than two minutes remaining, Bedford worked the ball around, trying to find an opening in Pinkerton's defense. Stevenson was finally able to get free, getting a pass near the 3-point line and driving to the basket when the defense came out to play her.

After a quick score by Kane at the other end to tie it back up, Stevenson found herself open again on the other side of the floor, and hit a jump shot that gave Bedford a 45-43 lead with 1:24 remaining.

"I just ended up with the ball and I was in the right position and I was wide-open," Stevenson said. "We feel like we can rely on each other. Anyone who has the ball, we’re not nervous, we know they can make a good play. Even when we make mistakes, we’re going to get back up and keep cheering each other on."