AHOSKIE – Hertford County High School rolled to victory number 22 here Monday.

The Bears, who have won 18 of their last 19 contests, used stellar offensive performances from Jordan Jones, Petey Boone and Jestin Thompson to knock off West Carteret 79-46 here Monday night.

That win came in the opening round of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association 3-A playoffs and set up a rematch with South Central last night (Wednesday). The two teams split during the regular season. Their game last night ended too late for press time.

Jones and Boone led HCHS in the contest with 17 and 16 points respectively while Thompson chipped in 14. There were eight other Bears who scored during the first round win.

Alex Godette (16 points) and Jon Papillion (13) lead the Patriots.

Two early ties (at two and five respectively) didn’t last long in the contest as the Bears went on a 17-2 run and led 25-9 at the end of the first quarter.

Boone jump-started the run with a three-pointer and was followed by a Jones hoop. Boone then hit back-to-back triples to push the lead to 16-7.

After those three-pointers, the Bears got a hoop from D’Isaac Jordan and two straight from Dontez Tyler to take a 22-7 lead.

Dontarius Collins finally stopped the HCHS streak with a pair of free throws, but Jones hit a free throw of his own followed by a hoop to make it 25-9 at the end of the first quarter.

The teams did little more than exchange scores in the second quarter with the Bears accounting for 10 points and the Patriots scoring 13 to close the gap to 35-22 heading into halftime.

After an early exchange in the third quarter, HCHS rolled off eight straight to up their lead to 21. Jones and Boone sandwiched buckets around two Dekimis Perry hoops as Hertford County steamed ahead 47-26.

Godette stopped the run with a hoop, but Boone had a triple and a field goal followed by a Jones bucket as Hertford county took a 54-28 lead. They held a 59-33 advantage after three quarters.

Simmons substituted liberally in the fourth period and the Bears cruised to the opening-round win.

In addition to those in double digits, the Bears got eight from Atkins, seven from Perry and five from Tyler while Jordan contributed four points. Wayne Simmons, Montell Lewter, Quenton Lashley and Dwight Vaughan scored two points each.

The win boosted the Bears to 22-4 overall.