Wachusett girls basketball hangs on to knock off Bedford (video)

BEDFORD - Kevin Gibbs knew there was more for the Bedford High School girls basketball team to worry about than just Wachusett's Jaelyn Scott.

So when Scott was forced to the bench in the third quarter with her fourth foul, it was no surprise to the Bulldogs who took over for the Mountaineers.

The backcourt duo of Teegan Lanpher and Sophie Gibbons steady things for Wachusett (Mass.) for a long stretch of the second half and the Mountaineers put the game away at the free throw line to beat Bedford 59-52 in a non-division game Wednesday afternoon.

Lanpher finished with a game-high 22 points, including 9 of 9 at the line, and Gibbons, while scoring just two points, did a little bit of everything else to help the Mountaineers (17-3) get the win. Scott finished with 20 points and Kyla Yurkus finished with seven markers.

“Scott’s a great player, but to me, the engine of that team is its backcourt,” Gibbs said. “Lanpher and Gibbons are the one that make that team go. They both play the point, they both make really good reads. I think our backcourt matches up really well with them, and if we play three times, maybe we win two, and if we play five times, maybe they’ll win three.”

Wachusett, the defending D1 champions in Massachusetts, was also able to get to the free throw line, going 17 of 26, more than enough to make up for the fact Bedford (23 field goals, three 3s) made more shots from the field than the Mountaineers (18, 2).

“The difference was at the free throw line, and them penetrating and then knocking them down,” Gibbs said. “At the end of the day, this is the type of game that’s going to make us better. Adversity is not a bad thing.”

The Bulldogs (15-2) got 18 points from Mel McCarthy, including two 3-pointers, while Juliet Laws finished with 16 points and Sarah Muir was also in double figures with 14 points.

Bedford fell behind early, going down 12-6 before closing the first quarter on an 11-5 run to tie the game at 17 after eight minutes. Wachusett started fast to open the second quarter, going up 24-19 on a 3 by Lanpher.

But both she and Scott picked up their second fouls in the quarter and the Bulldogs had an answer for every surge by the Mountaineers. A 3 by McCarthy with about 10 seconds remaining in the half cut the Wachusett lead to 31-26.

A fast start to the third quarter put the Mountaineers up 39-31, but Bedford countered with a 7-0 run. Scott picked up her third foul on a three-point play by Laws, and then her fourth on a putback by McCarthy that made it a one-point game.

A miss on the free throw by McCarthy kept it a 39-38 game, and Bedford started to struggle on the offensive end. The Bulldogs went almost eight minutes without a field goal, as the Mountaineers outscored them 9-1 to take a 47-39 lead.

“We’ve got to handle aversity better than we have and we did,” Wachusett coach Jim Oxford said. “Our best player got in foul trouble. We had her off in the first half and had her off in the second half, and our bench players came through for us and helped us.”

A 3 just before the buzzer by freshman Maya Maziarz gave Wachusett a 45-39 lead going into the fourth and a basket by Lanpher to open the final quarter put the Mountaineers up eight, their largest lead of the game.

“I think we forced a few passes, we weren’t ready for some passes,” Gibbs said. “In a game like this, it all comes down to a couple of possessions. We fought really hard to get back to that one point and then a couple of turnovers really hurt us a little bit.”

Bedford wasn't done though, as the Bulldogs chipped away at the lead until a 3 by McCarthy made it a two-point game, 52-50, with 1:26 to play. But a three-point play by Scott and a Bedford turnover that led to a basket by Maziarz helped put the game away for Wachusett.

“I just am super proud that we beat the best team in New Hampshire on their floor,” Oxford said. “It’s at the end of the season, which should be incredibly encouraging for us going forward.”