AHOSKIE – Gates County held off Northampton County High School – East 68-66 here Tuesday night.

The Red Barons claimed the two-point win in the Boy’s Consolation Game of the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald Holiday Classic sponsored by United Country Joe Murray Realty.

C.J. Griffin paced Gates County with 23 points while Corey Davis checked in with 20. Jeremy Smith was also in double figures for the Red Barons with 14. Jamar Williams (20) and Evans Grant (12) led the Rams.

Gates County held a tenuous three-point lead early in the fourth quarter of the contest, but was able to pull out to a seven-point advantage late in the period.

Williams hit a bucket early in the fourth quarter to get the Rams within three, but the Red Barons came back with a hoop by Davis and a free throw by Graham Hobbs to push the lead to six (47-41).

The Red Barons got the lead as high as eight (54-46) midway through the period, but Northampton-East stormed back. Javaris Liverman scored a bucket and was followed by four straight free throws from Travis Whitehead to close to within 54-52.

Griffin responded with a three-point play that pushed Gates County’s lead back to five and, after a hoop by Chris Bishop for the Rams, the Red Barons got back-to-back buckets from Griffin and Hobbs to establish the 61-24 lead with 2:44 to play.

An exchange of hoops was followed by a three-pointer from Bishop to get the Rams within four. They got as close as two after a three-point play by Williams, but couldn’t get closer.

Gates County had Russell scoring six and Hobbs five in addition to those in double figures.

In addition to those with double figures, the Rams got eight each from Whitehead and Kenny Graham, six from Liverman and five from both Bishop and Darius Riddick. Trayvon Day scored two.

The first quarter started with Northampton-East gaining an early 8-4 advantage thanks to hoops from Graham and Grant, but the Red Barons scored the final 13 points of the first period to take a 17-8 lead.

Smith led the way with seven of those points while Davis had four and Hobbs added two.

The Red Barons continued the spurt in the second quarter when Griffin scored to make it 19-8. Gates County was able to add another point to their lead by halftime and took a 25-17 advantage into the locker room.

Northampton rallied in the opening minutes of the third quarter, going on a 9-0 run to close to within 29-28. Williams paced the spurt with four points while Graham and Whitehead added two each and Grant had one.

The teams battled back-and-forth over the next few minutes until Gates County pulled away with a 5-0 run thanks to three points from Davis and two from Griffin. The rest of the quarter was an exchange of hoops with the Red Barons taking a 44-39 lead into the final period of play.