AHOSKIE – A swarming defense paced Hertford County.

The varsity boy’s basketball team from HCHS surrendered just 39 points Tuesday night as the Bears rolled to a perfect 6-0 in the Northeastern Coastal Conference with a 66-39 win over Currituck.

“I was really pleased with our intensity in the second half,” Hertford County Head Coach Charles Simmons said. “We have to come out and play with that same intensity for four quarters.”

The Bears were indeed impressive in the second half. They opened the third quarter with a 31-20 advantage and proceeded to roll off 15 unanswered points to lead 46-20.

Deshawn Outlaw got things started with a bucket moments into the quarter. He was followed by consecutive hoops from Marcus Burnell, Lamar Monger and Jamal Jones before Burnell hit 1-of-2 from the charity stripe.

Outlaw then hit back-to-back buckets and Michael Stephenson scored to account for the 15-0 spurt.

Currituck’s Dorian White stopped the run with a hoop, but Burnell came back with a bucket for Hertford County. The two teams exchanged hoops as the quarter came to an end, leaving the Bears in front by 26 (50-24).

After the Knights scored the opening hoop of the final period, Stephenson and Ivan Coulton hit consecutive shots and Antonio Vaughan drilled a triple to push the lead to 57-26 with 5:50 to play.

Simmons substituted liberally over the closing five minutes and allowed the Bears to cruise home to victory number 14 in 16 outings this year.

HCHS was led by dual 16s from Monger and Burnell while a total of 10 players scored for the Bears. Outlaw added eight for Hertford County while Vaughan had seven and Shawn Reid contributed five.

“We had several people come off the bench and play big for us tonight,” Simmons said. “Overall this was a good win.”

Currituck had the first score of the contest when Tim Vinick found the net, but the Bears scored six unanswered and 11 of the next 14 to pull away early.

Burnell and Monger each had two scores during the spurt while Vaughan also had a bucket.

Leading 11-5, the Bears saw Currituck get within four (13-9), but pulled away with two Monger buckets and a Reid score to close out the first period leading 19-9.

Monger opened the second quarter with a triple and Burnell scored an old-fashioned three-pointer to push the lead to 22-11, but Currituck got consecutive buckets from White, Nick Vinick and Randy Turner to get as close as 25-18.

Hertford County led 31-20 at the intermission thanks to a pair of late-quarter hoops from Burnell and a bucket by Jones.

HCHS (66): Lamar Monger n 16, Marcus Burnell n 16, Deshawn Outlaw n 8, Antonio Vaughan n 7, Shawn Reid n 5, Jamal Jones n 4, Michael Stephenson n 4, Jordan Jones n 2, Ivan Coulton n 2, Dominic Everett n 2

Currituck (39): Tim Vinick n 8, Dorian White n 8, Pierre Friendley n 6, Randy Turner n 4, Aaron Lindsey n 4, Antoine Mercer n 3, Josh Everett n 2, Nick Vinick n 2, Aaron Woodley – 2