BEDFORD -- With Lana McCarthy no longer patrolling the paint in dominant fashion, the Bedford High School girls basketball team knew that it would take a different approach if it wanted to defend its Division I championship this winter.
It's a challenge the Bulldogs have embraced through the the first three games.
The latest conquest came on Friday night when they closed out the first quarter and never looked back in cruising to a 64-32 victory over Bishop Guertin (1-1). Bedford (3-0) has outscored opponents by an average of 33 points heading into the holiday break.
"They came out and made a bit of a statement tonight, because everybody keeps saying Lana is gone and everyone says it's not going to be the same Bedford and we can pick them off," Bedford coach Kevin Gibbs said. "We're different, but we're still a really good team and you saw that tonight. A lot of kids can score the ball. We share the ball nicely."
McCarthy graduated as the school's all-time leading scorer with 1,272 points and is 12 games into her freshman season at Purdue University (12 games started, 7.8 points per game, 5.9 rebounds per game). Bedford also graduated a couple of other key pieces in Megan Muir and Devlyn McDonald.
Bedford senior co-captain and Boston University commit Kate Allard knew that it was going to take an effort from everyone to replace the production that was lost. It was a matter of putting a new spin on how the Bulldogs can win games.
Allard led Bedford with 16 points on Friday while Sarah Muir added 14 points. Allard eclipsed the 1,000-point milestone during last week's season-opening win over Trinity. Allard has 1,041 points and is third on the school's girls all-time scoring list behind McCarthy and Isabella King (1,115).
"I think we definitely are making sure that everybody is crashing the boards because Lana was really huge on those boards," Allard said. "Especially this year, we're really trying to play fast and run on a lot of teams."
Junior co-captain Annie Zink is loving the new fast pace and knows they're just scratching the surface with the possibilities.
"We're running a lot more and started pressing more with a full-court style of defense," said Zink. "It's a really fun change of pace and style."
Allard said it's more of a reactionary style of the play that brings out Bedford's athleticism.
"We want to run fast and not overthink things and not be robotic," Allard said. "Just see what the defense is giving us and react."
Gibbs said he took his team to Vermont to play a few games against tough competition to challenge his team's approach and get more experience. Bedford has only two seniors, Allard and Karina Kamineni.
"An aggressive defense is a big part of what we're going to do this year," Gibbs said. "In terms of our weapons, there was a tendency to find Lana. Now with her not there, they have a tremendous trust in each other and they're willing to pass the ball. We tell the kids 'If you feel it, take it'. We've got shooters up and down our lineup."
The Bulldogs are clearly ready to take their opponents' best effort.
"We know there is a lot of pressure on us after last year, so we're trying to push each other to our potential every day," Zink said.