ELIZABETH CITY – Heartbreaking.

The single word sums up Thursday night’s outcome at Northeastern High School.

With the ball and the lead and only 10 seconds to play, Hertford County lost their semifinal matchup with Northeastern 80-70 in overtime.

Hertford County claimed a 68-65 lead with 46 seconds to play when LaMarcus Bond hit two shots from the charity stripe.

The Bears then had the ball and the lead, but a blocked shot led to a foul called the other way and Deronte McNeil stepped to the line and hit two shots from the free throw line with five seconds to play to deadlock the score at 68 and send the game to overtime.

Once in the overtime period, the Eagles dominated the game, scoring first – on a McNeil hoop – and holding the Bears to a single hoop in the extra four minutes.

After McNeil’s bucket, Javon Brumsey had a hoop and a pair of free throws to put the Eagles up 74-68 with 2:50 to play.

Bond finally got the Bears on the board again at the 2:34 mark, but Northeastern went on a 6-0 run to close out the game. Ladonte Adams, Brumsey and Jeremy Banks each had hoops during the run that sent the Eagles to Friday’s Northeastern Coastal Conference finals.

Northeastern started the game quickly when Brumsey and Matt Dixon had back-to-back shots and helped push the Eagles to a 14-8 advantage.

The Bears rallied thanks to free throws by Lamar Monger and Ken Lee, and got within three points at 14-11.

Northeastern used free throws by Shelton Morgan to take a five-point lead at 18-13, but the Bears rolled off an 8-3 run to close out the period and tie the score at 21-all.

In the second quarter, the Eagles took a 32-29 advantage on a Spencer Mundy triple, but HCHS responded with a 11-0 spurt to grab the lead back.

The run started on a Marcus Burnell free throw, but was quickly followed by a hoop from Lee and back-to-back buckets by Bond.

Bond then hit four consecutive free throws to give Hertford County a 40-32 lead with 1:50 to play in the half.

Northeastern trimmed the margin to 42-38 thanks to a McNeil bucket just before halftime.

The third quarter was slow offensively for both squads as the Bears had nine points while Northeastern had 11 to get within 51-50 by the end of the period.

Hertford County started the final frame with a bucket by LaMarcus Jenkins and a three-pointer form Lee to go ahead 56-50.

The Eagles were able to deadlock the game at 59 minutes later thanks to a free throw by Mundy.

HCHS then had six unanswered points, four of which came from the hands of Jenkins, to grab a 65-59 lead with 2:27 to play.

Dixon and Mundy then sandwiched three pointers around a Bond free throw for Hertford County to get Northeastern within 66-65.

Northeastern (80): Javon Brumsey – 23, Spencer Mundy – 13, Deronte McNeil – 12, Matt Dixon – 12, Jeremy Banks – 10, S. Morgan – 6, L. Adams – 2, C. Elliott – 2

Hertford County (70): LaMarcus Bond – 26, Ken Lee – 13, LaMarcus Jenkins – 10, M. Burnell – 9, F. Gatling – 6, W. Pryor – 2, J. Futrell – 2, L. Monger – 2