AHOSKIE – Pungo Christian Academy secured its second trip to the finals of the Lt. Nick Brantley Scholarship Tournament at Revelle Gymtorium here Wednesday night.

The Lady Raiders downed Lawrence Academy 41-21 to earn a trip to the finals after beating Northeast Academy 42-37 in the opening round of the tournament.

Jodi Rose sparked Pungo with 12 points while Tess Smithwick added 11. Casey Belch led Lawrence with 10 points.

PCA led 11-10 early in the second quarter, but took over the contest over the next seven minutes. Rose sandwiched a pair of hoops around a Jenna Sadler bucket as PCA pushed ahead 17-10. Jordan Dunbar then hit a three-pointer to push the Lady Raiders ahead 20-10.

Lawrence finally stopped the spurt when Kendra Spruill scored as the first half expired to trim the deficit to 20-12.

The Lady Warriors got consecutive buckets from Taylor Sexton and Ashtyn Mizelle to start the third quarter and close to within 20-16. Smithwick, however, responded with a triple and a hoop to push the advantage back out to nine points (25-16).

Mizelle and Belch sandwiched a couple of hoops around an Allison Armstrong bucket for Pungo as Lawrence closed to within 27-20 as the third period came to a close.

The fourth quarter, however, belonged to Pungo as the Lady Raiders outscored Lawrence 14-1. It started with a Rose hoop and a triple from Dunbar that pushed the lead to 32-20.

Spruill stopped the run momentarily with a free throw for Lawrence, but a Rose triple sparked a 9-0 run for Pungo to close out the game. Armstrong added a hoop and Smithwick scored twice for the Lady Raiders.

Overall, Pungo improved to 2-0 for the season with the victory. PCA met Oakwood in the finals of the tournament last night (Friday). The Lady Warriors dropped to 0-1.

In the first quarter, Pungo ran out to an early lead when Dunbar buried a triple and Sadler had a hoop to make it 5-0. The lead went as high as 11-2 before Lawrence rallied thanks to four straight hoops from Belch to cut the lead to 11-10.