Winning streak has brought Bedford boys basketball from bottom to top of D1

Eyes opened around the state when the Bedford High School boys basketball team started its season with two straight losses.

A team that was viewed as a Division I favorite, which only lost four games all of last year - including the championship game - was at the bottom of the standings when 2018 got underway. But since those two losses, the Bulldogs have been headed in the right direction.

With wins over Nashua South and Keene to start the week, Bedford carries a 10-game winning streak into Friday's showdown with Manchester Memorial (8-3), and that run has taken the Bulldogs from the back of the pack to the No. 1 seed, if the postseason started this week.

"This year’s team took a little longer to jell than last year," Bedford coach Mark Elmendorf said. "We have the same kind of senior leadership that we had last year. I’m blessed. These kids work hard and they come to practice every day. To have that two years in a row is unique."

The team's captains - Max Chartier and Nick Mokas - are returning starters who have as much experience as anyone in the division, and fellow senior Nolan Anderson has developed into one of the top scoring big men. Throw in a handful of players who can do a little bit of everything well, and Bedford (10-2) has a team that seems to be able to win any way it has to.

The Bulldogs average 57.9 points per game, but they've hit 60 or more in each of their last three victories, while the defense has been stingy. After giving up 60-plus in those first two losses, Bedford has only allowed more than that twice, and gives up an average of 42 points during the winning streak.

While Chartier and Anderson, and at times Liam O'Connell, have led the way offensively, it's been Mokas who has held things together for the Bulldogs.

"He does everything," Elmendorf said. "He rebounds, he plays great defense, he passes well, he handles the ball in the backcourt. Nick is our captain and he’s an unbelievable young man. I don’t know what I’m going to do next year without him.

"For two years, he has done every single thing we’ve asked him to do. He’s tremendous. He and I are on the same page all the time and he’s a tremendous young man."

Of the contenders - and this year, it seems like there's quite a few - Bedford has the most favorable schedule down the stretch. After Friday night's game with Memorial, the Bulldogs' opponents have a combined record of 12-47, with Spaulding (6-6) the only team in that run without a losing record.

"It is wide-open, like everyone says," Elmendorf said. "We’re good, I don’t think we’re the best. Winnacunnet is very good, Exeter is very good, Memorial on Friday is going to be a huge game for us. We’ll see."