AHOSKIE – The battle of the two teams tied for second place in the Northeastern Coastal Conference never materialized.

Hertford County placed five players in double figures and rolled to a 73-55 home victory over Bertie here Friday night.

Both teams entered the Northeastern Coastal Conference matchup with one loss in the league, but HCHS controlled the offensive tempo from the opening moments.

“I was pleased with our transition offense,” HCHS coach Charles Simmons said. “We got after them defensively. Our effort was great.”

In all, the Bears had five in double figures, led by LaMarcus “Buck” Jenkins’ 16 points. Darren Everette chipped in 14 points for the Bears while Patrick Downing and Lamar Monger had 12 each. Marcus Burnell contributed 11 to the HCHS cause.

The Bears got started early with a Downing hoop and was followed by a triple from Jenkins and two from Monger to take a 7-1 advantage.

Travis Bond scored the first Bertie hoop to get the Falcons within 7-3, but HCHS rolled off six unanswered with hoops by Burnell, Jenkins and Monger to take a 13-3 advantage.

The Bears maintained that lead through the first quarter, taking a 23-11 advantage after one period of play.

Bertie trimmed the deficit to 23-13, but Hertford County scored eight consecutive points started by a hoop from Jenkins and closed by a Danny Dembry field goal to lead 31-13.

Bertie answered moments later with a 5-0 run that was led by Jermaine Jackson and Desmond Williams, as they got within 33-20.

Bertie closed the gap back to 10 (38-28) by the intermission as Bond and Darius Wesson had the closing scores of the quarter.

The lead barely changed in the third period with the Bears getting up by 14 (46-32) only to have Bertie cut the lead back to eight on back-to-back hoops by Kent Bazemore.

The Bears led 51-42 after three quarters.

HCHS then maintained their advantage through the final quarter to take the victory.

HCHS improved to 13-2 overall with the win and now sits alone in second place in the league with a 4-1 mark.

Bertie dropped to 9-7 overall and 4-2 in the league.

HCHS (73): LaMarcus Jenkins n 16, Darren Everette n 14, Lamar Monger n 12, Patrick Downing n 12, Marcus Burnell n 11, D. Dembry n 8

Bertie (55): Kent Bazemore n 13, I. Brown n 9, D. Wesson n 7, D. Williams n 7, T. Bond n 7, O. Dobbin n 3, W. Credle n 3, D. Williams n 2, J. Jackson n 2, B. Brown – 2