ELIZABETH CITY – It went down to the wire.

Bertie High School, however, could not pull off a third straight win over Northeastern High School in its bid to repeat as Northeastern Coastal Conference tournament champions. The Eagles won 52-48.

The Falcons entered the final period trailing by three, but WyKevin Bazemore hit 1-for-2 from the line to close the gap to 38-36 as the period started.

Northeastern, however, hit four straight free throws as they extended the lead to 44-36 with 3:38 to play in the contest.

Bertie responded with Bazemore hitting 3-of-6 from the charity stripe and Norman Cherry adding a bucket as the Falcons closed the gap to 44-41.

Northeastern responded with a free throw that made it 45-41 with 1:29 to play and then Cherry hit two from the charity stripe to close the deficit to 45-43 with 1:18 on the clock.

Northeastern then hit four straight points, including a three-point play from Kashawn Banks as they took a six-point edge (49-43).

Cherry, however, buried a triple with 23 ticks left on the block to close the gap to three. After a Raekwon Harney free throw, Marques Outlaw scored with eight seconds remaining to get Bertie within two (50-48).

The Falcons immediately fouled , but Terry Williams hit both shots from the free throw line to give Northeastern the four-point win.

Bertie got 17 points from Bazemore and 13 from Cherry during the contest. Dreyshawn Morris added six while Reginald Lee and Ramon Battle had three each.

Williams paced Northeastern’s attack with 18 while Harney had a baker’s dozen.

In the early going, Northeastern scored the first three points of the game, but Lee tied the score with a triple. The Eagles, however, got back-to-back hoops from Williams and Denzel Ward to take 7-3 lead. Ryan Daye and Bazemore, however, equaled that task and the game was tied again.

Northeastern got a late free throw from Maurice Baum to lead 8-7 after one quarter.

The Eagles extended that lead to 12-9 early in the second period, but Cherry had a run of six straight points on his own to help the Falcons surge ahead 15-12.

Northeastern responded with a 9-0 spurt that helped them go ahead 23-15 late in the first half. Battle had all three of his points over the closing minutes of the second period, however, and got the Falcons within 23-18 at the intermission.

The Eagles extended the lead to seven (35-28) midway through the third quarter, but Bertie rallied from that point.

Bazemore hit a free throw and then added a bucket before Morris had back-to-back scores that tied the game at 35-all.

Just as the Falcons rallied, however, Harney buried a three-pointer that gave the Eagles a 38-35 lead after the third quarter.

Bertie will be back in action next week in the North Carolina High School Athletic Association 2-A playoffs while Northeastern met Hertford County High School last night (Friday) in the league championship game.