AHOSKIE – Hertford County High School got in the win column at the right time.

The Lady Bears downed visiting Edenton 63-51 in the Northeastern Coastal Conference opener for both schools Friday, earning their first win of the 2011-12 season just as league play begun.

Camaryn Jones scored 25 points to pace the Lady Bears while Brandi Burden had a breakout game with 16 and Sherniece Futrell dropped in 11 points. Desiree James had six for HCHS.

Tamara Leary had 19 points to lead Edenton.

The game was in little doubt from the beginning as Jones and Futrell had back-to-back shots to open the game. Following a Katiya Hines free throw from Edenton, Jones had another bucket to give the home team a 6-1 lead.

The Aces responded with six unanswered points – getting two each from Leary, Diamond Dillard and Hadiya Bembry – as they took their only lead of the game (7-6).

The teams exchanged scores until the Lady Bears rolled off the last seven points of the first quarter on free throws from Jones and Casey Grant as well as hoops by Burden and Jones to take a 17-9 lead.

The Lady Bears continued to pull away as the second quarter opened. Futrell started the period with a free throw and then Burden and Jones hit back-to-back shots giving HCHS a 22-9 advantage.

Bembry stopped the run, but the Bears came back with a hoop from Jones and a Burden free throw to lead 25-11 with 4:20 to play in the first half.

The Lady Aces made another run when Bembry had a three-point play and Leary added a free throw to close their gap to 10 (25-15), but Hertford County rolled off seven straight again to pull away. Kayla Everette and Futrell each had buckets to make it 32-15 before Leary scored just before the half to leave Hertford County ahead 32-17 at the break.

The second started with the Bears rolling off 11 unanswered points. Burden and Futrell had back-to-back shots before Burden scored from the free throw line. Futrell and Jones then hit consecutive shots before Jones scored twice from the charity stripe to give the Bears a 43-17 lead.

HCHS pushed the advantage to 31 (53-22) late in the third quarter and then put it on cruise control as they held off a late rally from the Aces to win by a dozen.

In addition to the leading scorers, Hertford County got two each from Everette and Quameka Cofield and one from Grant.

The win pushed the Lady Bears to 1-3 for the season and 1-0 in the Northeastern Coastal Conference.