AHOSKIE – Hertford County owned the season series against Wilson’s James B. Hunt High School.

Unfortunately for the Bears, Hunt used their only victory over HCHS this season to win the Sectional Championship 59-55 here Monday night.

The Bears led 51-50 after a Brandon Long hoop at the 3:20 mark of the fourth quarter, but Hunt rallied to score five unanswered and grab a 55-51 edge.

After a pair of free throws from Kelvin Sutton, the game’s leading scorer with 20 points, Brodderick Battle hit a field goal and LeeLee Pender had a toss from the charity stripe.

Pert Simons got the Bears to within 55-53 with a bucket with 40 seconds left in the contest, but Sutton buried two from the charity stripe 10 seconds later.

LaMarcus Bond hit a pair from the free throw line with 25 seconds to go to get the Bears back within two, but Rickshanta Spell and Pender each made 1-of-2 from the line to seal the Hunt victory.

In the early going, the Bears built a seven-point lead (17-10) thanks to timely three-point shooting. Lorenzo Benthall hit a trey to begin the game for the Bears and Frank Gatling had a trifecta at the end of the first to help establish the 17-10 lead after one quarter.

Benthall hit a bucket to start the second and Qwenton Valentine added a free throw to give HCHS a 20-10 lead with 6:45 to play in the first half.

Sutton had back-to-back hoops on his own to get the Hunt offense started, but Long responded with a free toss and a field goal to give HCHS a 23-14 lead with 3:30 to play in the second quarter.

Three straight hoops from Hunt (one from Pender and two from Battle) cut the Hertford County lead to 23-20, but the Bears responded with free throws from Simons and Bond and a triple off the hands of Benthall to lead 28-20 at the half.

The third quarter started well for Hunt as Battle and Sutton hit consecutive hoops before Simons had two HCHS free throws. Back-to-back buckets from Donald Barnes and Sutton got Hunt to within two (30-28).

A 10-2 run for the Warriors put Hunt up 38-34.

Hunt (59)

Kelvin Sutton – 20, LeeLee Pender – 12, Brodderick Battle – 12, Rickshanta Spell – 7, Donald Barnes – 6, Matthew Reardon – 2

Hertford County (55)

Pert Simons – 14, LaMarcus Bond – 12, Lorenzo Benthall – 10, Brandon Long – 7, Frank Gatling – 5, LaKendrick Lee – 4, Reggie Wiggins – 2, Qwenton Valentine – 1