“He’s our engine that makes us go,” Bridgeport head coach Don Cash said. “And he played really well tonight with 32. It’s close to his career high. I think 34 is his career high.”

32 big points from Vincent, along with eight rebounds and four assists, propelled the Bulldogs to their 10th win of the season, a 83-52 home defense against the visiting Bellaire Big Reds.

One man, though, does not make a team, said Cash.

“We know what we’re getting from him night in and night out,” the veteran coach said. “And that’s no slight to everybody else. Every guy does stuff that doesn’t show up in a box score– Jaki [Threet] does a lot. Jameil [McKennen] guards the best player on the other team every game. We’re playing well now, but we know we’re gonna have some obstacles down the line.”

Threet scored 10 points with six rebounds and three assists. McKennen scored five with five rebounds and two blocks.

Evan Clark and Coen Brinker also joined Vincent and Threet in double figures. Clark tallied 12 points, while Brinker scored 13 with six rebounds.

Bellaire was led in scoring by Jace Violet, who scored 15 points for the Big Reds. Michael Dippel was close behind with 14, also grabbing seven rebounds.

Bridgeport nearly led wire-to-wire– Bellaire tied the game 4-4 early– but Bellaire wasn’t far behind, trailing 24-16 after the first quarter and weathering a scoring flurry by Vincent, who had 11 in the opening quarter.

As the game wore on though, the Bulldogs’ athleticism gave them an edge to push their lead further and further out.

They’re a hard number. Vincent’s a hard number,” Bellaire head coach JR Battista said. “He’s got a lot of foot speed, and we didn’t have enough foot speed to match up, to slow them down. And then other guys started making shots, and they hurt us on the boards. You know, we got some open shots at the other end, but we didn’t make them. You’ve got to make them to keep the game within striking distance. With Vincent, we didn’t, that’s credit to Bridgeport.”

Bellaire did make seven 3-pointers on the day, four coming from Dippel, but Bridgeport had a marked advantage inside the arc and at the free throw line. The Bulldogs made 13 free throws while the Big Reds made one.

Bridgeport made six 3-pointers to boot, two from Vincent.

The Bulldogs led 46-27 at halftime, and 66-35 after three quarters.

“I thought we came out strong in the first quarter,” Cash said. “We let them get some easy buckets off our press, and we changed some stuff up defensively and settled back down. We told the kids the press might not work every game, so we had to adjust and we made some adjustments and we did a better job in the second quarter and there on out. But we did get some deflections to get out and ran and got some easy buckets. And when we get in transition, we’re a whole lot better.”