The Bedford High School girls basketball team defeated Keene last Friday to finish the regular season a perfect 18-0.

The Bulldogs reward was to play the Blackbirds again Wednesday in the preliminary round of the Division I playoffs, and the result was the same.

No. 1 Bedford got out to a big lead in the first quarter and never looked back in a 67-22 win over the No. 16 Blackbirds. The win means Bedford will host a quarterfinal game Saturday against No. 8 Trinity, which defeated No. 9 Manchester Memorial.

Ali Glennon led the way for Bedford, scoring 11 of her game-high 17 points in the first quarter, which included three 3-pointers. Haley Driscoll added 11 points for the Bulldogs and Bri Purcell chipped in with nine as 10 players scored points for Bedford. Allison Yeaw and Lillian Desrosia each had six to lead Keene (4-15).

After the teams opened the game by trading baskets, Bedford went on runs of 8-0 and 13-1 to lead 23-5 at the end of the first quarter.

“Having just played them and beaten them, it was important not to have a letdown,” Bedford coach Sue Thomas said. “We have to keep working on things and I think they understand that this was the start of hopefully four games and they have to put a run together. I was proud of the way they came out.”

It was Glennon leading the way early, as she had five of Bedford’s first 10 points and hit two 3s late in the quarter.

“I’m looking for my shot more,” she said. “I’ve been hitting it in practice, so I’ve been thinking of taking them in games more. That’s what we waned to do. We’ve been getting off to slow starts, so we wanted to get a fast start (Wednesday).”

The Bulldogs outscored Keene 14-2 in the second quarter to lead 39-7 at halftime, and it was more of the same in the third and fourth.

The win was the first in what Thomas hopes is a tough four-game stretch like the one Bedford is coming off. The Bulldogs finished the regular season playing Londonderry and Pinkerton, followed by senior night against Dover and then the Blackbirds.

“The last two weeks were probably our toughest two weeks because we had Londonderry and Pinkerton and then we had senior night, which was very emotional,” she said. “And then there was the drive to Keene. Those two weeks were very hard. That was nice, we went undefeated, but that means nothing. We have to start again and they’re ready to go.”

Glennon believes that the Bulldogs are and have been for some time.

“We’re really locked in,” the senior said. “This is the last time we’re going to play together, so we’re going really hard.”

All of the Bulldogs have been contributing, too.

“I was looking at our stats, and I told them this before the game,” Thomas said. “We average about 62 points per game, and none of our players averages 10 points a game. I have a spread sheet of all our games and it’s a different player every game. It’s who has the hot hand. The girls know that and they feed off that. Almost everyone scored (Wendesday). That’s the story of our team.”

Win or lose, Bedford will play its final home game of the season Saturday when it hosts Trinity at 7 p.m. The Bulldogs won 62-30 when the teams played on Jan. 21.
“I’ll go home and watch film,” Thomas said. “Trinity has a great point guard. We don’t generally do much about the other team, except who is going to guard who, and then it’s about us playing our game.”