Bishop Guertin's Olivia Murray tries to put up a shot against Bedford;s tough 6-2 center Lana McCarthy during the teams' regular season meeting in mid-January. They meet in the Divison I finals today in Kingston. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

KINGSTON – It looked as if the tone for the season was set for the first 16 minutes back on January 17.

The Bedford High School girls basketball team was taking a young Bishop Guertin squad to school, dominating inside thanks to the play of a talented freshman and savvy senior.

Guertin was down 20-plus points, a sight as strange and abnormal as a July blizzard.

“No, I don’t know if that’s ever happened to us in state,” Guertin coach Brad Kreick said, his team looking that day as if it would lose its first in-state game since Bedford won three years to the day, a stretch of close to 50 games. “I think it’s going to be a really great game. They have a ton of size, are very difficult in the half court both offensively and defensively.”

That was back in mid-January, after only a game or two for BG and it was Bedford’s opener, and the Cardinals recovered for a stirring 69-64 comeback win. Now, two months later, they get to see where they finally stand in today’s Divison I championship game at 2 p.m. at Sanborn Regional.

“They’re a (at 12-2) very different team than they were,” Kreick said. “We’re a very different team than we were. Our kids are basically a full season older, more experienced. I think you saw that lack of experience in the first half of that first game.”

Guertin (18-0) was also banged up a bit in that first game, missing key backup point guard Mazie Barker, and also six-foot freshman forward Hadara Ochieng with injuries. Now Ochieng hasn’t been an early rotation player during the tournament but her height and five more fouls could come in handy against Bedford’s inside game of 6-2 Lana McCarthy and six footer/Bucknell-bound senior Isabella King.

The two programs were set to meet in last year’s semifinals before the pandemic plug had been pulled. Guertin was going for a fifth straight title — a streak that began with back-to-back wins over the Bulldogs in 2016-17 — but had to settle for a co-championship with Goffstown.

Today, these teams have two different styles. Bedford operates more in the half court with its size; Guertin loves to press, run and score in transition.

“A lot of it is going to be about dictating tempo and the pace of the game,” Kreick said. “It’s always been that way about that team.”

In that first half, Guertin center Meghan Stack and defensive/game pace setter Kailee McDonald sat with two fouls each. Their return in the second half made all the difference in the world as Guertin chipped away and entered the fourth quarter within reach.

“They’re healthy, they went through a stretch in the middle of the season where they were pretty banged up as well,” Kreick said. “But they’ve got all their kids back a few weeks ago, and if you ask Coach (Kevin) Gibbs he’d say they’re peaking at the right time and playing their best basketball right now.”

“We were certainly tested along the way,” Gibbs said. “I feel our ‘cluster’ was the toughest, and as a result we come into (today) battle tested.

“Due to injuries and illnesses (no COVID) nine different players started games for us this year. This actually had a positive effect in getting more players ready for a playoff run.”

Gibbs says the team has since developed more scoring punch besides McCarthy and King, but has also gotten closer than Bedford teams of the past.

“Even though this has been an unusual season, the team has really gelled and bonded,” he said, “perhaps more so than any team in the past two years.”

Guertin, meanwhile, has been paced by that core of sophomores that has had to grow up fast.

“We’re really excited for that game,” Guertin’s Liv Murray, who hit several key free throws down the stretch in the first meeting, said after the team’s ho-hum semifinal win over Londonderry. “We’re going to have to focus really hard in our practices.”

Today, the focus is on one thing – the state’s best girls basketball rivalry going.

“It’s going to be,” Kreick said, “a helluva basketball game.”

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