Bridgeport Girls Basketball Ends Season with Regional Loss at Elkins
By Michael Minnich on February 26, 2026
ELKINS – The fifth-seeded Bridgeport Indians could not overcome a slow start and another lengthy second-half drought, losing to the fourth-seeded Elkins Tigers, 53-37, in Region II playoff action on Thursday night.
“We just didn’t make shots tonight,” Bridgeport coach Josh Ashby said. “We missed a lot of open looks, a lot of open layups. We couldn’t put the ball in the hole tonight.”
Avery Humble led Bridgeport with 14 points, while Reese Pierce scored all of her 11 in the second half.
Haylee Pryor, with eight points, was the only other Bridgeport player with more than two.
Elin Morris hit four 3-pointers to finish with a game-high 20 points for Elkins, while five Tigers scored between six and eight points.
Bridgeport scored first on an Humble layup only for Elkins to score the next five on a Emma Gilbert 3 and a Mencia Gomez steal-and-lay.
“She played a good ball game,” Ashby said of Gomez. “The first quarter, she killed us off the dribble, getting to the rack and kicking it out for 3s.”
Bridgeport did some damage from the line as Pryor and Humble each hit pairs of free throws, but two Morris 3s and a Maddie Zirkle layup staked Elkins to a 13-6 lead after one quarter.
The Tigers extended the run to 15-0 and the lead to 23-6, with 3s by Gilbert and Mady Shreve the highlights, before Humble’s layup with under 30 seconds to ended a Tribe field goal drought of over 14 ½ minutes and a scoring drought of just over 10 minutes.
But a Morris 3 at the horn gave Elkins back an 18-point cushion, 26-8, at halftime.
Pryor’s 3 opened the second half for Bridgeport, sparking a 7-2 run that also included layups for Audrey Kerr and Humble and cut the lead to 28-15 with 5:30 to go in the third.
Bridgeport trailed again by 13 again, 30-17, after an Olivia Bell layup, then got within a dozen, 32-20, on two Pierce free throws and a Humble FT with 2:44 left in the quarter.
“We just switched up a little bit and put Haylee at the point,” Ashby said. “We went to a horns set there, just looking to drive off of it with pick-and-rolls. We noticed they were sagging on the helps. We had those corners wide open, so that’s what we went to in the third quarter.”
Pierce and Humble both made pairs of free throws later in the quarter, but Elkins closed the quarter on a 7-2 run to lead 42-24 heading to the fourth.
Two Pierce makes from the foul line cut it back down to 16, but the Tigers extended the lead back to 20 and didn’t look back, assembling a 14-0 run to go up 51-24.
Pierce’s layup with 1:45 left ended a field goal drought of over 11 minutes for Bridgeport, then she hit another 3 late, as did Pryor.
Humble’s 3-point play with 16.9 seconds left capped scoring and an 11-0 Bridgeport run.
Elkins (9-9) advances to play top-seeded Keyser in the Region II co-finals next Tuesday with a state berth on the line, while Bridgeport bows at 6-17.
