Bedford blows past Manchester Central and into D1 girls basketball quarterfinals

BEDFORD – The Bedford High School girls basketball team is headed somewhere it’s never been before.

McKenzie Brown scored 19 points and Rachel Collins added 16 to help lead the No. 2 Bulldogs to a 56-33 win over No. 15 Manchester Central on Wednesday in the Division I preliminary round.

It’s the first time the Bulldogs have won a playoff game, and they’ll now host No. 7 Alvirne at 7 p.m. on Saturday in the quarterfinals.

“We’ve made the playoffs before but haven’t won a game, so that was goal No. 1,” Bedford coach Sue Thomas said. “Let’s just get a win under our belt.

“I thought we played great. We had a great first half. Third quarter we played great defense, but the offense was a little flat. I think that was more because when you see the scoreboard and you know how it’s going … but they bounced back.”

Haley Driscoll also had 10 points and seven rebounds for Bedford (17-2), which led 22-9 at the end of the first quarter and never looked back.

Central (5-14) got 14 points from Katherine Johnson, but no else had more than four for the Little Green, who ended their season losing seven of nine games.

Bedford went on a 10-0 run early and jumped out to a 12-2 lead. The Bulldogs were having no trouble getting to the basket, putting in eight layups in the first quarter.

“You could feel there was a flow going,” Thomas said. “Those starters, once they started getting in that flow, you can tell that they’re almost unstoppable. They click and play so well together, when they’re feeling it, they feed off each other.”

The Bulldogs hit a lull in the third quarter, scoring just eight points, but they managed to keep Central from getting any closer thanks to their defense.

Collins got Bedford back on track to open the fourth, going on a 6-0 run of her own to put the Bulldogs up 46-24 with 6:29 left in the game.

Bedford will host Alvirne on Saturday, after the Broncos beat No. 10 Exeter 66-41, also on Wednesday.

The Bulldogs knocked off Alvirne earlier this season, winning 63-46 on Jan. 8, the first game of Bedford’s current 13-game winning streak.

“They’ve done great things and they have great shooters,” Thomas said. “They have seniors who lead the team. Every game to every team is so important and the top eight in our division are very strong and could beat anybody. We have to be ready to go.”