St. Mary’s girls hoop sees season end against Bedford

BEDFORD – Defending Division 3 state champion St. Mary’s put up a good fight on Saturday in Bedford against the top-seeded Buccaneers. But in the end, St. Mary’s didn’t have enough to overcome the Bucs’ balanced scoring and swarming defense in a 55-44 loss in the North quarterfinals.”Give Bedford a lot of credit,” St. Mary’s coach Jeff Newhall said. “They were better than us (Saturday). We tried everything but they deserved to win this game. To go from 4-16 to 19-2 says a lot.”St. Mary’s actually started out very well on Saturday, taking a 13-7 first-quarter lead as the Buccaneers had to shake off nearly two weeks’ worth of rust. But a 6-2 run to close the quarter brought Bedford within two and changed the complexion of the game in a big way.”We had a chance there to put a little distance on them and if we score the next five there, who knows what happens?” Newhall said.Led by freshman point guard Kristen Bullock, Bedford took the lead for good midway through the second quarter as Bullock finished with a game-high 15 points.Bedford outscored the Spartans 19-7 over the final 12 minutes of the half to take a 26-20 lead into the locker room. St. Mary’s quickly closed the gap back to a point when Brianna Rudolph hit a three, but Bulllock answered by banking home one of her own.From there, the Spartans would have no answers as Bedford went on a 12-5 run to close the third and take a 42-30 lead.The Spartans showed the heart of a champion in the fourth, closing the lead to 43-38 on Jennie Mucciarone’s three-pointer but Bedford was able to sustain the rush and then put the game away with a couple of easy layups in transition.”I was happy that we hung in there all game and kept fighting,” Newhall said.