It was a strange sight seeing the Bishop Guertin girls watch another team (Bedford) last Sunday . (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

It was almost a ThreeFeat.

Yes, had the Bishop Guertin High School girls basketball team been able to get past a very, very good Bedford team last Sunday and win the Division I title, that would have given the school three team state championships in 24 hours.

Has that ever happened before? Unlikely. Guertin won the girls hockey title last Saturday afternoon while the boys hoop team won the Division I crown later that night.

Ironically, the BG girls hockey team was as dominant during the regular season as their hoop counterparts, and had to come back in dramatic fashion in a game or two on the ice the same way the Cardinals girls did on the hardwood. In fact, the team had its most dramatic regular season rally against Hanover, which sent the semis to overtime in the rematch and were inches away from a win in the extra session.

The Guertin girl hoop players staged a huge comeback over Bedford two months ago. But what happens in January doesn’t necessarily translate to March.

Telegraph Sports Reporter Tom KIng.

Youth caught up with these Cardinals. They were tentative in the half court vs. Londonderry in the semis, and a lot of that carried over to the finals against Bedford. Most of the key players for BG were sophomores. It’s no coincidence that the state’s best player, Isabella King (no relation) is a senior, and she scored 23 points in the 64-46 Bedford title win.

No shame in losing to a team led by that kind of performance. None whatsoever.

As Cardinals coach Brad Kreick said after the game, “(King) was fantastic … everything you’d expect in a great basketball player … and we had a heckuva time stopping her. … I don’t think it was the youth, I just think we got beat by a better basketball team.”

So you tip your hat. Guertin was apprehensive early, settled down with a better tempo, but the Cards couldn’t stop Bedford defensively. The Bulldogs scored 64 points, and no one had done that to the Cards all year.

Unlike the Cardinal teams that held up title plaques, Guertin will have all its key pieces in place next season, barring any unforeseen circumstance. In fact, that group will be together for the next two seasons. If 6-foot-2 Bedford freshman Lana McCarthy sticks around, the Bulldogs and the Cardinals will no doubt be eyeing each other the next two years.

For those of you who were around for it, this is close to becoming the modern equivalent of the old Nashua-Londonderry rivalry, the Panthers going up against the Lancers seven times in the state title game from 1985-1996, winning six times, two by one point.

Guertin and Bedford have met in the Division I finals four times now, with a 2-2 split, since 2013. Guertin also owns a big semifinal win over the Bulldogs in 2018. The next season the Cards routed a young Bulldog team very early in the regular season, and it didn’t seem a coincidence that the ripple effects after that led in part to a coaching change.

So there was no threefeat. No problem. The Cardinal girls basketball team has written its own hugely successful legacy, one that will no doubt continue in a big way.

Tom King can be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or on twitter @Telegraph _TomK.

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