ASKEWVILLE – The teams combined for 184 points.

Five players for the two squads scored in double figures – two had more than 20, one had more than 30 and the fourth had more than 40.

In the end, Bethel Christian Academy scored its second victory of the season against non-league rival Ridgecroft School with a 96-88 home victory.

Bethel’s Shane Tripp led all scorers with 41 points while Ridgecroft was paced by 35 from Austin Britton.

Tripp was joined in double figures by Kyle Freeman, who chipped in 27 during the victory.

Britton got double digits from teammates Ryan Beggs (27) and Nathan Pearce (10).

The Rams actually outscored the Eagles in three of the four quarters, but were in a hole so deep they could never erase the deficit after trailing 24-9 at the end of the first quarter.

Bethel came out of the gate quickly, mounting a 12-1 lead before the Rams were able to score from the floor. Tripp, Daniel Feher and Marky Palmer all helped the Eagles get out the quick start.

Britton finally got the Rams on the board with his bucket that closed the gap to 14-3, but Tripp had two free throws and Freeman added a layup as the Eagles pushed the lead to 18-3.

Pearce hit two free throws at the other end, but Tripp hit 1-of-2 as the Eagles held a 19-5 lead.

Freeman added another hoop to make it 21-5 before Beggs found the bottom of the net. Freeman added a triple before the quarter’s end, but Pearce scored as well to give Bethel a 24-9 lead.

The Eagles scored first in the second quarter on a Tripp field goal, but Britton responded quickly for his club. The exchange of scores lasted for several minutes with the lead remaining at 17 until midway through the period.

At that point, Beggs hit two free throws and added a bucket to close the gap to 32-19.

Tripp, however, scored four of the next five to push the lead to 36-20. That lead remained until the end of the quarter when Beggs and Pearce had back-to-back hoops to close Ridgecroft within 43-30 heading into the intermission.

The Rams began to close the gap in the third quarter, going on a 6-1 run midway through the period that got them within 51-45. Beggs, Britton and Michael Byrum had the scores that closed the gap to six.

Feher, however, converted for Bethel at the other end and the Freeman went on a personal 4-0 streak as the Eagles extended the advantage back to 13 (58-45).

The lead was still at 13 (60-47) later in the quarter when Britton converted a three-point play and then scored a layup to get the Rams back within eight (60-52).

An exchange of scores left the lead the same, but Freeman hit two late buckets before the quarter closed to give Bethel a 12-point cushion (66-54) heading into the final period.

The Eagles opened the fourth quarter with four straight points, all coming from Tripp, as they extended the lead to 71-54. It seemed Bethel would pull away as they eventually took an 87-69 lead with just 2:21 to play.

Ridgecroft, however, wasn’t ready to go away. The Rams scored eight straight from that point thanks to six points from Beggs and two from Britton to get within 10 (87-77).

Freeman stopped the spurt with 1-of-2 from the line, but Landon Larabee completed a three-point play for the Rams as Ridgecroft got within 88-80 with 1:24 remaining.

Moments later the Rams had to resort to fouling intentionally to close the gap, but the Eagles were money from the line, hitting eight of their 10 attempts to seal the victory.

The win lifted Bethel to 16-5 overall while dropping the Rams to 6-7 for the season.

In addition to those in double figures, the Eagles got nine from Kevin Johnson, eight from Feher, seven from David Simons and six from Palmer.

The Rams got six from Larabee, five from Byrum, three from Bobby Edwards and two from Cas Castelloe.