It was a game when the starters had to stay in, which was good.

No, there was no bench clearing when the Bishop Guertin High School girls basketball team was pushing through the fourth quarter to its 10-point win over Bishop Feehan of Attleboro, Mass. on Sunday.

No reserves in drawing standing ovations from the Cardinal starters on the bench when they make great plays, like there was a week ago when Guertin obliterated another highly ranked out-of-state opponent in La Salle Academy of Providence, R.I.

But, it still wasn’t what fans and media probably expected, perhaps not even the BG coaching staff.

So what do you give the girls basketball team that has everything?

A close, drag it out, down to the wire game like it had last February at the University of New Hampshire’s Lundholm Gym vs. the Bedford Bulldogs.

Maybe they’ll get that – who knows, even get a loss – against the other top team in Massachusetts, Wachusett Regional, on the neutral floor of Emmanuel College on Saturday night.

It’s high school, it’s kids, so you never know. But what happened Sunday at the Colligadome was impressive. Feehan looked just as quick and athletic as the Cardinals, yet BG’s plan was to keep up the pace and the pressure and attack the basket. They were down 3-2 and next thing you knew it was 20-8.

“We got exactly what we wanted out of this game,” Cards coach Brad Kreick said. “We got a really talented team that came in here and played hard start to finish. Look, we’ll take the win, generally pretty happy with the performance, off day (Monday) and go back to work (Tuesday).”

For the Cards, it’s all about competition. They’re trying to maximize it, with the most out of state games allowed at the expense of sure blowouts of the two Nashua teams and a few other local or in-state teams. They were really counting on a whole new level of play at the Tampa Holiday Invitational, when teams from all over the country would gather for a four-day hoopfest. But 15 didn’t get there thanks to the Southwest Airlines temporary collapse, and the Cards were one of those.

After Wachusett, the Cards have Central Catholic in Lawrence, Mass. and Mercy High School of Middletown, Conn. (9-2 at last look) as the remaining out of state games, all to prime them for the toughest in-state game they’ll have, rival Bedford.

“These games,” Kreick said, “are great learning experiences.”

That’s how it looks. This is a different BG team from a year ago; this time it’s got size as six-footer Meghan Stack is back from missing 2022 with her knee injury, and Brooke Muller is not a freshman any longer; the sophomore played key minutes inside on Sunday.

“She gave us a huge lift when she came in the game,” Kreick said. “She was aggressive offensively, did a great on the glass for us, defended really well, was active.”

Because there was no tourney trip to Fla., the win at Dracut was key because that game was tied at the half; and Feehan on Sunday was, as Kreick said, “within shouting distance.”

But internally you know he’s got to be yearning for more challenges. Mercy had an exceptional team a few years ago and left the Colligadome with a win but Kreick saw something, a sense of fight in his team that it really hadn’t had to show earlier that year. From that day on, he finally knew it had what it took to win the high pressure tourney games and a title and it did.

He doesn’t really question that now, not with senior guard Brooke Paquette around. Like she willed the Cards to victory in last year’s title game, she had a game high 23 on Sunday. It’s going to be very different next season without her and the other seniors.

But first, let’s see what happens the next six weeks. Wachusett, Kreick said, will bring “every bit as much (as Feehan), they’re actually similar. Very skilled one through five, they’re actually a little longer.

“It doesn’t get any easier.”

Well, it does and it doesn’t. The basketball at the Colligadome is still fun to watch, but a game down to the wire would be a welcome bonus. The bet is the BG coaches privately are thinking the same thing.

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