AHOSKIE – Three players scored in double digits Friday as Hertford County High School improved to 2-0.

The Bears got 20 points from Antonio Vaughan, 13 from Petey Boone and 10 from Dontez Tyler as they knocked off rival Northampton County High School – East 73-49 in a varsity boys basketball game.

Veteran HCHS skipper Charles Simmons said he was pleased with the win, but stressed that his team still had room for improvement.

“We have to get better offensively and defensively,” Simmons said. “We did some good things in spots, but we have to learn to run our half court sets and be on the same page defensively. Overall, it was still a good win.”

The game was nip-and-tuck during the opening quarter with the lead changing hands five times during the opening period.

Northampton-East led 16-12 late in the quarter after Travis Whitehead buried a three-pointer, but the Bears rallied for seven unanswered to close out the first period with a 20-16 lead. Vaughan had back-to-back buckets for HCHS and Boone added a triple.

Charles Cumbo responded for East and closed the gap to a pair (20-18), but Hertford County again went on a 7-0 spurt. This time Boone and Jordan Jones had consecutive hoops and then Boone hit a three-pointer to push the lead to 27-18.

Cumbo briefly stopped the spurt with a hoop, but then HCHS rolled off the next seven in a row. Jones had a hoop while Tyler added a free throw and then Vaughan hit back-to-back shots to push the home team’s lead to 34-20.

Corey Neal and Cumbo sandwiched hoops around two Vaughan free throws to get East back within a dozen (36-24), but a Deshawn Britt three-pointer pushed it back to 15. Darrell Fisher’s hoop before the intermission cut the Rams’ deficit to 39-26 at the break.

Neal started the third quarter with a hoop for East, but Hertford County answered with a 10-0 run that all but ended any comeback hopes. Tyler and Ivan Coultan had four points each during the spurt while Dekimis Perry added the other two.

Rudolph Bishop stopped the run, but was answered by a Jones field goal.

East rolled off seven straight of their own to close within 14 (51-37) when Bishop hit a three-pointer and two free throws and Quayshawn Deloatch added a hoop. The HCHS lead was still 14 (53-39) at the end of three quarters.

Coultan and Perry opened the fourth quarter with back-to-back buckets for the Bears, but from then on the game remained about even the rest of the way as HCHS kept a double-digit lead throughout.

In addition to those in double figures, the Bears got eight points from Coultan, six from Derrick Perry, five from Michael Morris and four each from Jones and D. Perry. Britt added three.

East was led by Bishop and Deloatch with nine points each while Cumbo chipped in eight and Fisher added seven. Neal and Phillip Dickens had six points each for East while Travis Whitehead added three and Jeremy Raynor con