Ripon blanked visiting River Islands in the second and fourth periods Thursday and rolled to a 48-16 non-league girls basketball victory.

“We rebounded and played good defense,” Indians coach John Scheid said. “We did all the little things. We took care of business.

“I feel we have a good chance to be competitive in (Trans-Valley) league. If we play good defense and run our offense, we will be a team to reckon with.”

Shayla McKeon (seven rebounds, four steals) helped Ripon (8-9) to a gangbuster 16-0 first period, scoring eight of her game-high 14 points. She saw very limited action in the second half.

“Before games, we try to focus on what we need to do well,” McKeon said. “On the court, there is not five individual people, we all have to work together.

“Just being able to swing the ball, talk and having the bench hype us up really helps our mentality.”

Ava Hernandez (five rebounds, four steals, assist) hit for seven of her 11 points for the Indians in the fourth period.

“I was just trying to have fun the whole game,” Hernandez said. “We were a little slow in the first half, but we started to get into it in the second.

“We really woke up, the bench was loud, everyone was loud, and we were just having fun.”

Ripon’s Tatiana Perez added eight points and three rebounds, and Itxel Reynoso chipped in six points, three rebounds and three steals.

Brianna Lee paced the Riptide (3-10) with nine points, two rebounds and two blocks. Milyn Morales pulled down five rebounds.

In its first year of varsity competition, River Islands has no senior class.

“We are young,” Riptide coach Jessica Hutton said. “We have mostly freshmen and sophomores on our team with a couple of juniors, and games like this are great learning opportunities for us.

“We are hoping that the adjustments we make from all these hard non-league games will help us in league which is coming up.”

On Tuesday, River Islands hosts Turlock Christian at 5:30 p.m., and the Indians host Orestimba at 7 p.m.