AHOSKIE – It’s been a short but successful non-league season for Hertford County.

The Bears continued an impressive run here Wednesday night. Thus far in the 2004-2005 season, the boy’s basketball squad for HCHS hasn’t lost to an opponent outside the Northeastern Coastal Conference.

Wednesday’s 69-60 victory over visiting Rocky Mount pushed the Bears to 12-4 on the season.

&uot;I was pleased with the whole team effort tonight,&uot; HCHS basketball boss Charles Simmons said. &uot;We made our free throws at the end of the game and pulled away.&uot;

The Bears broke open a 52-all contest midway through the fourth quarter.

LaMarcus Bond, the game’s leading scorer with 20 points, started and ended an 8-0 HCHS spurt that gave the Bears an eight-point advantage (60-52). Ken Lee and Leonard Burnell had the other two buckets.

Rocky Mount tried to get back into the contest as Terrell Hudgins’ free throw was followed by a hoop from Onterreous Pittman to trim the HCHS lead to 60-55 with just over a minute to play.

From there, the Bears hit six consecutive shots from the free throw line to seal the win.

LaMarcus Jenkins had a pair of free throws before Bond hit four in a row to make it 66-55 in favor of the Bears.

A triple from the hands of David Pittman got the Gryphons within eight (66-58), but Lee clinched the Hertford County win by hitting 3-of-4 from the line.

In the early going, the Bears fell behind the Gryphons 14-10 late in the first quarter. The Bears deadlocked the score with back-to-back buckets from Leonard and Marcus Burnell.

Hertford County got the lead early in the second quarter off a hoop by Jenkins.

That two-point lead stayed the same over the next three minutes until the Bears rolled off seven unanswered points. L. Burnell, Jenkins and Bond had scored during the spurt.

The Bears ran that lead to 37-28 by the intermission thanks to runs of 6-0 and 4-0.

Hertford County maintained that lead through the third quarter when they led 49-41 by the end of the period.

Rocky Mount used a 12-2 run to get back in the game, but the Bears pulled away at the end.

Hertford County will host First Flight High School in a Northeastern Coastal Conference battle here Tuesday night.

Hertford County (69): LaMarcus Bond – 20, Ken Lee – 13, Leonard Burnell – 12, LaMarcus Jenkins

– 10, F. Gatling – 9, M. Burnell – 3, W. Pryor – 2

Rocky Mount (60): David Pittman – 17, Terrell Hudgins – 15, Onterreous Pittman – 12, C. Thorne – 9, T. Peyton – 3, A. Coleman – 2, C. Dickens – 2