Bishop Guertin's Sam Prescott (3) puts up a shot between Bedford's Luke O'Connell, left, and Ryan O'Rourke (22) durng Friday night's Division I clash at the Colligadome. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – It was a war.

Yes, Friday night’s high school boys basketball battle between Bishop Guertin and Bedford at the packed Colligadome had everything the Cardinals and their coach Will Horne love – intensity, defense, grit, determination.

All except one thing: A winning result on the scoreboard. That went to the Bulldogs by a 57-51 tally that had you wanting more. For BG, it was more points.

“That’s exactly what it came down to,” Guertin coach Will Horne said. “We had a lot of the looks that we wanted, the ball didn’t bounce our way tonight. It’s early, there’s a lot of good things to take from it. But that’s a tough one.”

One in which the Bulldogs, now 3-0, led most of the way. Guertin trailed by 10 in the first half, then 27-19 at the break, and 38-32 after three. Twice the Cards closed to within three, 49-46 and 51-48 with 1:34 left, but could never get any closer. After scoring 94 points against a young Concord team in the opener, the Cards have scored 85 combined against powers Portsmouth and Bedford.

It was simple. Make or miss.

“Honestly, we didn’t do anything different (in coming back),” Horne said. “I think shots just fell for us. Anytime we got ourselves back in the game that’s what it was. We were making those tough shots and taking care of the basketball was key, too.”

The Bulldogs knew it was going to be a matter of survival.

“Exactly,” Bedford coach Frank Marino said. “Exactly. We knew it was going to be a war. They rebound the ball so well. Physical. The refs just let them play, both sides of the floor. We survived.”

They also held BG’s leading scorer, Connor McGowan, to five points over the first three quarters, rendering him a non-factor. But then he erupted for 12 in the final quarter to finish with a game-high 17, but it wasn’t enough. Eli Yousseff added 14 and Luca Fabrizio 11 for the Cards.

Bishop Guertin’s Eli Yousseff (21) and Luca Fabrizio (2) try to wrap up Bedford’s Luke O’Connell during Friday night’s Division I clash at the Colligadome. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

“They’re a really good defensive team,” Horne said. “They were doing a lot of stuff to slow him down. It’s early, right, we’ll do a lot to clean things up and get him some easier looks early in the game. But we’ve got to get him going defensively. We lost out in transition a little bit. … Anytime we can get him going, the rest of the guys feed off his energy.”

“We really tried to focus on keeping McGowan in check,” Marino said. “We were face guarding him, we were all over him, just because we know how deadly he can be. We tried to take one guy away. Fabrizio hit some big shots, Yousseff hit some big shots. They made it tough for us.”

But the Bulldogs got some key rebounds down the stretch. McGowan hit a trey to cut the gap to 55-51 with 19 seconds left, then Bedford’s Landon Ellsmore, after missing two free throws, got his own rebound and hit a putback that sealed the deal with just over 10 seconds to play.

“Landon just has a nose for the ball,” Marino said. “That could have really been trouble at the end.”

Ellsmore had 12 points but Luke O’Connell led Bedford with 15 while sophomore Ryan O’Rourke and Logan O’Connell had 11 each.

“When they’ve got four guys in double figures, they’re tough to beat,” Horne said. “A six-point loss feels like a two-point loss for our guys just because of how hard we play and how much emotion we put into it.”