By Tommy Bryant

Sports Writer

LASKER – Northeast Academy pulled off an upset of Ridgecroft School here Friday.

The Lady Eagles rallied from an early deficit, held off a late rally and defeated the Rams 35-31 in a key Tarheel Independent Conference matchup.

Mary-joe Harrell got things started for the Rams with an early three-pointer, but Ashton Liverman answered with a hoop for the Eagles.

Miller Bryant and Lauren Colson then hit back-to-back hoops for Ridgecroft to push the Rams ahead 7-2.

Northeast scored six of the next eight with a pair of field goals by Liverman and two free throws from Hannah Roye which was answered only by a hoop from Bryant as the Eagles closed within 9-8.

Colson, however, scored the final two points of the quarter when she hit two from the charity stripe to give Ridgecroft an 11-8 lead.

Colson added to the Rams’ advantage with a bucket to open the second quarter, but Ivey Little hit a pair from the free throw line to answer for the Rams.

Bryant scored from behind the arc to give Ridgecroft their largest advantage of the night (16-10).

After an exchange of buckets, the Lady Eagles scored the final seven points of the second quarter. Roye had a hoop and a free throw while Kaylen Rose and Little each had a score as Northeast took a 19-18 lead at the intermission.

The third quarter saw the Eagles add to that advantage as Liverman, Rose and Little each had hoops to push the Northeast advantage to 25-18.

Colson stopped the spurt with a hoop for the Rams, but Northeast came back to score four more in a row to make it 29-20 at the end of the third quarter.

Mollie Cocke started the fourth quarter with a bucket to put the Eagles ahead by double digits (31-20).

The Rams then roared back to score eight of the next nine points paced by five from Colson and four from Bryant as they closed the gap to 32-28 with 2:18 to play in the contest.

The Eagles, however, closed the game out at the free throw line as they secured the four-point win.

Liverman led the Lady Eagles with 12 points while Roye added nine and Little seven. Bryant and Colson had 13 each for the Rams.

In junior varsity action, the Lady Rams pulled out a 26-25 victory.

Ruthie Daniels led Ridgecroft with eight points while Emily Grace, Caroline Edwards and Catherine Outlaw had six each.

Holly Byrum paced Northeast with 20 points.