GASSAWAY, W.Va. — Bridgeport’s Gabby Reep has played beyond her years throughout her freshman season.
In Thursday’s Class AA Region II co-final at Braxton County, Reep saved one of her finest performances for the biggest stage she’s yet to play on.
The Indians’ guard scored a game-high 20 points and made a pair of critical free throws with 1:01 remaining to help send Bridgeport to the state tournament with a 46-39 win at the Braxton County Armory.
“We’re going to hold her back about six years and try to keep her playing for about 10, then we’ll let her go to college,” Bridgeport coach Herman Pierson quipped. “Gabby just likes to play. She doesn’t realize she’s supposed to be scared and she loves to play basketball and compete. That’s just the beginning for her.”
The Indians (13-12) are the No. 8 seed at states and will take on fellow Big 10 Conference member No. 1 North Marion in a Wednesday quarterfinal.
With the Eagles (17-8) trailing 40-30 nearing the 5-minute mark in the fourth quarter, they got three-pointers from Maggie Skidmore and Peyton Smith to close to within four with 4:10 to play.
Neither team scored over the next three-plus minutes as the Indians tried to burn clock, and the Eagles came up empty on the few chances they had to make it a one-possession game.
Reep then made two free throws to push the lead up to six, before Maddie Wilson also went 2-for-2 at the line to stretch the lead to eight.
Reep added two more throws with 11 seconds left for good measure.
“We had a losing record at a couple different points this season and they just kept playing together and became a family through working together,” Pierson said. “They had to work very hard to get here.”
Braxton County’s best stretch of the night came over the first few minutes of the second quarter.
Leading 11-9 after one period, the Eagles began the second on a 7-2 run to take a seven-point lead. The surge featured inside baskets from Jocelyn Abraham and Lacey Liston along with a Skidmore triple, helping Braxton hold an 18-11 advantage.
But the Tribe responded with a 9-1 run to end the half, getting five points from Reep and a pair of layups from Hannah Bartlett, the latter of which sent Bridgeport into halftime leading, 20-19.
Reep had 11 points at the intermission, giving her more than any other player in the game finished with.
“We never really got on track,” Braxton head coach Keith Greene said.
The Indians held a 25-24 lead in the third quarter and closed it on a 9-2 run to take control of the contest. The run began with a three from Annamarie Pinti and also featured two baskets from Paige Humble and one from Reep.
Humble scored eight of her 10 points over the final two quarters and also led the Tribe with eight rebounds.
Smith and Skidmore each led the Eagles with nine points on a trio of threes, but Abraham was held to six points. She had scored 75 points in three regular season meetings with Bridgeport, two of which the Eagles won.
“We boxed her out, kept her from driving and did all the things we needed to do to keep her from scoring,” Pierson said.
Braxton County also hurt its cause with 22 turnovers compared to Bridgeport’s nine.
“Turnover killed us tonight,” Greene said. “Those are key and they capitalized on that.”