Bedford girls basketball knocks off Portsmouth to advance to D1 final
KINGSTON – The Bedford High School girls basketball team braced itself for Portsmouth’s best punch early in Thursday’s Division I semifinal.
The Bulldogs withstood it and countered with a big one of their own.
Bedford went on a 13-0 run in the first half, turning a two-point game late in the first quarter into a 15-point lead midway through the second, and the Bulldogs rolled to a 66-43 win over the Clippers at Sanborn Regional High School. The win puts Bedford in the final for the first time since 2017, where the Bulldogs will face Bishop Guertin at 2 p.m. on Sunday.
Lana McCarthy and Isabella King led the way for Bedford (13-2), scoring 22 points apiece. McCarthy, a freshman, had 16 of her points in the paint, as the Bulldogs scored 36 points inside and had 19 second-chance points. They also outrebounded the Clippers 41-25, including 19 offensive boards.
King, a senior, added three 3-pointers as the pair combined to shoot 60 percent (15 of 25) from the field.
“We knew they were going to come out us hard and they did,” Bedford coach Kevin Gibbs said. “There is a lot of young talent on that team and they’re going to make noise for years to come. We’re experienced and we have a lot of talent and our girls really play well together. They were finding the open person, they were making the extra pass.”
While King and McCarthy scored 11 points during Bedford’s first-half run, early on it was other players stepping up and scoring when Portsmouth (8-7) was trying to take the Bulldogs’ top scorers out of the game.
“We tried to do somethings a little differently than the regular-season game we had against them, but we weren’t disciplined enough in all the aspects we needed to be,” Portsmouth coach Tim Hopley said. “To their credit, the secondary players for them, they made shots, they did the things they needed to do to allow them to be successful.
“We’re spending so much time and effort to keep the ball out of the post, to keep Isabella from her left hand, and then all of a sudden, there’s a white jersey standing by herself.”
The Clippers got 13 points off the bench from Margaret Montplaisir, who hit two of her three 3-pointers in the first quarter to help Portsmouth keep it close early. Lina Deaze-Roed, Avery Romps and Maddie MacCannell each had seven points for Portsmouth.
A basket by Bella Slover made it 17-15 with 1:33 left in the first quarter and led to a timeout by Bedford. McCarthy scored on a putback out of the break and King added a 3 before the end of the quarter to give the Bulldogs a seven-point lead.
King opened the scoring in the second with two free throws and a layup and McCarthy followed with another second-chance basket before Sydney Grogan got an offense rebound and put it back up to make it 30-15 with 5:30 to go in the half.
In all, Bedford outscored Portsmouth 22-9 over the final 9:13 of the half to take a 39-24 lead into the break.
“The kids can shoot the ball,” Gibbs said. “When people think we’re a two-person team, we’re not. We’ve got a lot of other kids that if, you decide you want to double up on Lana, and face guard Isabella, we have people who can drive or hit the outside shot.
“The kids did a nice job defensively. We did a lot of switching and we had excellent communication with each other. The kids are driven and they’re focused. They take a lot of pride in their defense and they take a lot of pride in playing together.”
And the Bulldogs will get one more chance to do so on Sunday when they face Bishop Guertin in the final for the third time.
“This is what we wanted,” Gibbs said. “We wanted to be one of the last two teams standing.”
