AHOSKIE – Hertford County High School evened its record here Tuesday night.

The Bears topped visiting Currituck County High School 63-43 to improve to 7-7 overall while upping their Northeastern Coastal Conference mark to 3-1.

“I was pleased with our effort,” HCHS basketball boss Charles Simmons said. “We did a great job of looking for the open man and finishing under the basket. This was a good team win and a good conference win.”

Darius Wright led the way for the Bears with 15 points during the contest while Jquwan Ruffin scored 11. Jarrett Sexton and O’Shane Ximinies scored eight each.

Currituck was led by Kyle Spruill’s 17 points.

The contest was close over the early going with HCHS rushing out to a 6-2 lead only to see the Knights battle back and take an 8-6 edge.

After giving up the lead, the Bears got a three-pointer from Wright and a free throw from Ximines. Wright then hit two straight three-pointers and pushed the Bears in front by a 16-8 count.

Currituck closed to within 19-15 on a three-pointer by Harrison Ferebee as the first quarter closed.

Jemel Monger started the second quarter with a hoop that was answered by Rakeim Woodley for Currituck. From that point, the Bears rolled off seven straight. Dorrien Askew started the spurt with a triple and was followed by successive hoops from Ruffin.

The Knights got within 10 again before the period ended, but a Sexton hoop made it 35-23 heading into the halftime break.

Ruffin started the third quarter with a three-pointer that was followed by a three-point play from Ximines and a hoop by Sexton as the Bears surged to a 43-23 edge.

Currituck couldn’t get closer and trailed 51-29 by the end of the third quarter.

Wright started the fourth quarter with a triple that pushed the HCHS edge to 54-29. Currituck answered with consecutive triples off the hands of Dakwon Foreman and Spruill.

The Bears, however, held Currituck to just 14 points in the fourth quarter to easily hang on for the 20-point victory.

In addition to the top scorers, HCHS got seven from Tyquan Davis, five from Ryan Weaver, four from Monger, three from Askew and a pair from Juan Moody.