Wilson leads Vikings past Bridgeport, 35-31

The Indians (5-7) got off to a good start as Reese Pierce scored five points for a 6-5 lead after one period of play.

However, Bridgeport’s offense went cold in the second quarter and the Vikings took advantage of the poor shooting, outscoring the Tribe 13-5 for an 18-11 halftime lead.

It was mostly done with 3-pointers as Wilson had two of them and assisted on another 3-pointer from Bristol Smith to lead Ripley to the second-quarter surge.

“We just did not attack on offense by moving the ball and that caused us to not make very many shots,” Bridgeport coach Josh Ashby said. “We were able to do the attacking much better in the second half, but came up just a little short.”

Kennedy got into the act for Ripley in the third period with two 3-pointers for all six of the Vikings points as they were able to hold a 24-19 edge heading into the fourth quarter.

That’s when Bridgeport went to a 1-2-1-1 full-court press just to get things going offensively and for the most part it worked.

Ripley led 31-19 with 5:36 remaining in the game when the Indians went on a 12-2 run to close the gap to two, 33-31, after a Pierce 3-pointer and an inside shot from Kloey Martinez with 15 seconds to play.

But, Wilson sealed the win for Ripley by making two free throws with 1.7 seconds remaining in the game for a four-point cushion.

Pierce paced Bridgeport with 12 points and three steals. Haylee Pryor followed with nine points, all from the free-throw line where she went 9-of-12.

Martinez chipped in six points, grabbed a team-high nine rebounds and had four steals.