MERRY HILL – Lawrence Academy claimed the battle of Bertie County among private institutions here Tuesday night.

The Warriors used a balanced scoring attack to blow past Bethel Christian Academy 98-51 in a non-conference matchup between the two schools.

Shabazz Atkins paced the Warriors off the bench, scoring 18 points, while Chase Stevens chipped in 17, Chad Whitehead had 16, Cade Larabee contributed 15 points and Patrick Dilday added 14. Shane Tripp led BCA with 25 points.

The contest was all Warriors from the beginning as the home team raced out to a 30-7 lead by the end of the first quarter.

Larabee started the onslaught with a three-pointer just 16 seconds into the contest. That was followed by a Whitehead bucket that gave the Warriors an early 5-0 lead.

After Daniel Feher got the Eagles on the board with 6:57 to play, the Warriors got consecutive hoops from Larabee and Evan Holton to push their advantage to 9-2.

Tripp got a three-point play at the 5:40 mark of the quarter to close the gap to 9-5, but Lawrence scored the next 19 points to pull away to a comfortable 28-5 advantage.

Larabee started the run again with a hoop that was followed by a bucket from Holton and free throws by Dilday and Trace Larabee. Cade Larabee followed with a hoop before Atkins sandwiched a pair of field goals around a Whitehead bucket. Dilday and Whitehead scored the final four points of the spurt.

David Simons stopped the run with a bucket for the Eagles with 53 seconds left in the first quarter, but was answered by an Atkins hoop that established the 30-7 lead.

Tripp started the second quarter with a free throw, but Stevens answered with a hoop for Lawrence. Marky Palmer then got a bucket for the Eagles to trim the deficit to 32-10 with 7:05 to play in the first half.

Holton had back-to-back buckets for Lawrence, but was answered by consecutive hoops from Kyle Freeman and Tripp on the other end of the floor.

Following another exchange of scores, Lawrence went on a 9-3 run that pushed the margin to 47-20. Atkins had three points on the run while Stevens added two as did Whitehead and Scott Dunlow.

Lawrence closed the quarter with back-to-back scores from Atkins and went into the locker room with a 51-22 edge.

The Warriors picked up in the third quarter where they left off in the second with Stevens and Whitehead hitting consecutive buckets. A Tripp score interrupted the run, but Stevens buried a three-pointer to put Lawrence ahead 58-24 with just over six minutes to play in the period.

Lawrence’s lead reached 30 with 3:57 to play in the third quarter after a Dilday hoop and then went to 34 by the end of the quarter. The Warriors closed the period with a three-pointer from Stevens and a three-point play by Atkins to establish the 72-38 score after three quarters.

The fourth quarter saw Lawrence roll off another 26 points while Bethel scored 13 to establish the final score.

In addition to those in double digits, the Warriors got six points from Holton and five each from Trace Larabee and Dunlow. Askew added two points.

The Eagles got 11 points from Freeman and eight from Palmer while Simons scored four and Feher had three points.

Lawrence improved to 5-3 overall with the win and will travel to Rocky Mount Academy tonight (Thursday). Bethel (3-6) travels to Mt. Calvary tonight.