WINDSOR – No doubt, at least for now.

Bertie High’s girls basketball team padded their first place lead in the 2A-3A Northeastern Coastal Conference Tuesday night with a convincing 72-51 win over rival Northeastern.

The win avenged an earlier 64-63 loss to the Lady Eagles on the road and extended Bertie’s winning streak to nine games.

“I told them whoever wins this is number one in the conference,” said Lady Falcons’ coach Alice Lyons, “and we’re at home. That’s all I said to them and they took it from there.”

More like a ‘take-over’ as Eboni Bond scored 29 points to pace Bertie while Ayanna Wilson added 19 and Montreshia Perry had a double-double of 13 points and 10 rebounds.

Derreon Cole led Northeastern with 19, 11 of which ame in the second half. Jasmine Nixon had 15, all in the first half.

Bertie came out running, pressing and rebounding in the opening quarter and led it 6-0 in the first minute and a half.

Northeastern came back to pull within three points three times – the last one, 10-7, before Bertie’s defense shut them down and poured it on to outscore the Lady Eagles, 10-3, and finish the quarter ahead 20-10.

The two team played nearly even in the second quarter, with Bond carrying much of the Bertie scoring load with ten of her team’s 16 points, including a rainbow three-pointer that put the Lady Falcons ahead, 33-17. Bertie entered the locker room with a nine-point bulge, 35-26.

As much as Bond was a factor in the first half with 17 points, the second half belonged to Perry and Wilson. The dynamic duo scored 11 of Bertie’s first 13 thanks to Northeastern turnovers the Lady Falcons converted into fast break points.

Then it was Bond’s turn again scoring seven of the next nine and putting the Lady Falcons in front by 17 (55-38) headed to the final quarter.

Bond opened the fourth with a three-pointer followed by a steal and layup. Perry followed with a jumper in the lane, YaShonti Bridgers added a layup and Wilson another in the paint to stake Bertie to its biggest lead of the night, 66-38.

From there Bertie put it in cruise-control to pick up their fifteenth win of the year.

“YaShonti shut her down,” said Lyons, referring to Bridgers’ defense in the low post against Nixon which resulted in the Northeastern center having zero points in the second half. “That was a big plus for us.

“I asked my defense to step it up in the second half and they responded,” she added. “Everything clicked tonight and I can’t praise my girls enough. I think we made a statement tonight.”

“The difference is they’re used to playing in these kinds of games,” sighed Northeastern coach Pat Thornton, nodding toward the Bertie locker room. “We’re still learning, and I hope we see them again.”

Bertie’s on the road Friday at Pasquotank before returning home next Tuesday to host Currituck.