Photo by Kim North Bridgeport’s Coen Brinker drives to the basket Friday night as Toronto’s Austin Buchanan (11) and Landon Grimes (3) defend on Frank Baxter Court inside the John J. Havlicek Gymnasium.

BRIDGEPORT — There are times in a season when a team has to make a statement. Bridgeport did just that Friday night.

The Bulldogs (6-7) never trailed en route to a stunning, 65-55 victory over visiting Toronto in boys’ basketball action on Frank Baxter Court inside the John J. Havlicek Gymnasium.

“It’s been a while,” Bridgeport head coach Donnie Cash said when asked about his team’s win over Toronto. “I’ve got a lot of respect for Tuck. He does a great job up there. They were 11-3 for a pretty good reason.

“We finally put together a really good game for four quarters,” Cash added. “It’s what we are capable of doing. We just need to bring it on a daily basis from here on out.”

Coen Brinker knocked down the first of his five triples to start the game and, with the exception of a 32-all deadlock early in the third quarter, Bridgeport led wire-to-wire in avenging an earlier loss to the Red Knights (11-4).

“From the beginning of the game, Bridgeport came out hungry and played to their strengths. Give them credit,” Toronto head coach Sean Tucker said. “We didn’t play to our strengths which are good defense and shutting people down. We let a guy get hot that shoots the ball very well wide open at times.

“We know what the Vincent kid can do,” Tucker added. “We came into the game going to let him score, but stop everyone else, and we didn’t do that tonight. You look at their scoring, they had a guy with 25 and a guy with 23.

“Our guys kept fighting and fighting, but we’ve got to do the little things like securing rebounds … grabbing rebounds,” Tucker added. “I’m not sure when we got away from going up strong and grabbing the ball. We’re tipping the ball instead of grabbing it.

With time running down in the first quarter, Bridgeport’s Jaleel Vincent grabbed a missed shot by the Red Knights and heaved the ball nearly three-quarters of the court through the rim as the buzzer sounded, giving the hosts an 18-12 advantage.

Not to be outdone, Brinker, who scored a career-high 23 points, tickled the twine ahead of the third-quarter buzzer to give Bridgeport a 52-45 lead with a quarter left to play.

“You could say a little luck was on our side, but we’ll take both of them,” Cash admitted. “But those guys get a lot of shots up in practice. When Jaleel let his fly all I said was ‘just one time.'”

Prior to Brinker’s buzzer-beater, the Red Knights had sliced the deficit to 42-41 on a Colt Joynson, but the Jefferson Countians then misfired on seven consecutive foul shots as the Bulldogs went on a 10-2 run.

Bridgeport built the lead to 17, 65-48, with a 11-0 run in which Vincent netted six and Brinker five. Toronto never recovered.

Vincent led all scorers with 25. He also charted a handful of assists and several steals while also snagging five rebounds. Brinker had 13 of his career-high total in the first half but buried a huge trey during the 11-0 spurt.

“I think our sophomores grew up a whole lot tonight,” Cash said. “They played well, but we don’t have much time to celebrate.”

Jaki Threet grabbed six rebounds to pace the Bulldogs. Avery Jackson also pulled down five.

Austin Buchanan led Toronto with 13 points. Michael Henry added 12 points and five rebounds. Brady Fair had 10 and five rebounds, as did Aiden Filby and Landon Grimes.

Bridgeport is right back in action tonight at Conotton Valley.