Outside the Tribe: Reep Earns Place in Discussion for Best Basketball Player in School History
By Chris Johnson on March 29, 2023 from Outside the Tribe
The high school basketball season is officially in the books.
State champions have been crowned. All of the all-state teams and player of the year honors have been announced.
But before I call it a wrap for the 2022-23 season, I want to talk about legacy. To be more specific, the legacy of Gabby Reep for the Bridgeport High School girls basketball team.
Four seasons ago before I had even started at Connect-Bridgeport, I had already heard about a talented freshman point guard for the Indians. In her first-ever game in a BHS uniform, Reep scored 27 points in a win against a talented Gilmer County team.
The first time I saw Reep play in person, a 52-31 win against Liberty, in January of 2020, I thought there were moments where she was easily the best player on the court.
Over the next four years, those moments became long stretches and even entire games. As I watched her final high school game, a 48-25 sectional loss to Buckhannon-Upshur, I knew without question I had just watched the final game of one of the best players in school history.
In my time covering high school sports in the area, the BHS girls have had plenty of great players from Theresa Melko to Lauren Gilbert to Kasie Carbacio to Quinn Stalnaker to Gianina Renzelli to Emily Riggs and so on and so on.
As great as all of them were, the discussion, prior to Reep’s arrival, on who is the best player in school history generally came down to Miki Glenn and Erica Rome.
Now that it is all said and done, Reep has made that a three-player discussion.
In many people’s eyes, Glenn will get the nod amongst the three as she did help the Indians win a Class AA state championship and did win the Mary Ostrowski Award as the state’s top player in 2013 before moving on to an All-American career at Cal (Pa.).
Those three are also the Top 3 leading scorers in school history with Glenn at 1,775, Reep at 1,657 and Rome at 1,530.
Reep almost certainly would have surpassed Glenn if it wasn’t for the COVID-19 pandemic which caused her to miss at least 10 games because of shortened seasons and cancelled games.
If there somehow was a way to give Reep an additional 10 games, her scoring 119 points in those 10 games might be the safest bet in the history of gambling.
The three leading scorers in school history were about so much more than points though.
All three were point guards with high basketball IQs. All three wanted to get their teammates involved in the offense but knew when they had to take over a game scoring wise. All three filled up the stat sheet in other categories – rebounds, assists, steals. All three were usually tasked with defending the other team’s best player.
Reep had the opportunity to play on the state’s biggest stage – the state tournament – just once and that came in her freshman year when BHS was in Class AA.
The Indians then spent Reep’s final three years in arguably the toughest Class AAAA region in the state where Wheeling Park and Morgantown have both advanced to the state tournament three straight seasons.
Reep still earned respect throughout the state as she earned Class AAAA First-Team All-State honors three straight seasons – something that only a handful of players have ever accomplished.
I’m the all-state chairman, which means I’m the one that tabulates the all-state votes as they come in. To me, even more impressive than making first-team three straight times, is the fact that the ballot from every coach of every opponent Bridgeport has had since the 2020-21 season, included a vote for Reep.
Think about that just for second. For three straight years, every coach that Reep played against, voted for her as one of the top players in the entire state.
Reep’s numbers in her senior season included a 21.9 points per game average along with 8.7 rebounds, 6.1 assists and 5.2 steals per game.
Those numbers certainly stand on their own and are worthy of being in Mary Ostrowski Award talks, and she was and received votes for the honor that was won by Wheeling Park’s Alexis Bordas.
If you put any stock in a Player of the Year award having most valuable player connotations to it than Reep had to be in the discussions because there isn’t a player in the state that meant more to their team than Reep to the Indians.
The next time we see her in a basketball game, it will be at Fairmont State, where ironically enough Glenn is an assistant coach.
There is no doubt in my mind, Reep will have a great collegiate career and will just continue to get better and better during her time there.
For now though, I’m just grateful I had a front-row seat to watch one of the best careers in BHS history, one of the best careers in North-Central West Virginia and one of the best careers in the state.
Editor's Note: Photos of Reep by Joe LaRocca.
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