AHOSKIE – Northeast Academy held off a rally for victory number one here Friday night.

Playing in the fourth place game of the Lt. Nick Brantley Scholarship Tournament, the Eagles rallied past Pungo Christian Academy 43-35 to earn their first victory of the season and the first for Head Coach Tim Boone as the Eagles’ skipper.

James Pope and Clay Robbins led Northeast with 10 points each while Will Glover and Brad Johnson contributed eight each. Davis Harrell added seven for Northeast.

Pungo was led by Joseph Braddy’s 11 points and 10 from Dillon Woolard.

Northeast started quickly out of the gate with Pope burying a triple just 34 seconds into the contest.

Pungo responded with consecutive hoops from Kris Armstrong, Woolard and Braddy to take a 6-3 lead, but Northeast came roaring back.

Glover hit a hoop that was followed by a Pope basket as the first quarter came to an end and Northeast led PCA 7-6 after one quarter.

The Raiders opened the second quarter well, getting a hoop from Colley Latham which was followed by a three-point play from Braddy and a hoop by Woolard as Pungo took a 13-7 lead.

The Eagles again responded as Robbins hit back-to-back buckets to close the gap to two (13-11). After an exchange of hoops left the Raiders ahead by that same count (15-13), Braddy scored to give Pungo a 17-13 lead with less than a minute to play in the second quarter.

Robbins, however, scored 30 seconds later and then Pope buried a three-pointer at the buzzer, sending Northeast into the locker room with an 18-17 halftime lead.

Woolard tied the score with a free throw to open the third quarter and the two teams battled evenly through much of the period with the score eventually tied at 24-all with 2:48 to play in the period.

At that point, Harrell gave the Eagles a two-point edge with his hoop, but Woolard hit 1-of-2 from the line to close the gap to one (26-25).

Harrell and Johnson had back-to-back hoops to push the Northeast Academy lead to 30-15, but Armstrong scored to cut it to 30-27 at the end of the period.

Harrell had the first hoop of the fourth quarter as he pushed the lead to 32-27.

Down the stretch, the Eagles missed three front ends of one-plus-one opportunities, but Pungo couldn’t capitalize and Northeast held on for the 43-35 win.

After the tournament, which is sponsored jointly by United Country Joe Murray Realty and the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald, the Northeast varsity boys were honored with the Spirit of the Tournament Award for being the team that most closely matched the effort and enthusiasm for the game exemplified by Nick Brantley.