WINDSOR – Balancing act.

Bertie High’s girls basketball team used balanced scoring and had no player in double-figures here Tuesday night, but still managed to double the score over the Lady Chargers of Weldon, 40-20.

Jomiya Earley and De’najah Porter had eight points each for Bertie while Tyessence Martin and Shaunquisha Leary added seven apiece. That’s four Bertie players with three-fourths of the Falcons’ total scoring between them. Porter also had 18 rebounds.

Weldon’s Talia Boone led all scorers with 10 points for Weldon while teammate Ja’cole Whitaker finished with 14 rebounds.

“I know why the game was like this, we didn’t get a chance to practice yesterday because of the fog (cancelling school activities),” sighed veteran Bertie coach Alice Lyons. “When you don’t have the ball in your hands for a couple of days you’re going to have games that look like this.”

It didn’t have to be pretty. It was effective.

In fact, it looked as if Bertie had been working out all along, blazing their way to a 10-0 first quarter as they held Weldon scoreless.

The lead grew to 14-0 in the second quarter before Boone made a pair of foul shots for the Chargers’ first points of the evening.  That seemed to settle Weldon and they played much better for the rest of the first half, even though they’d dug themselves a huge hole from quarter number-one. When Alexis Ingram got a steal and a lay-up Weldon was only down nine, 20-11. But Zariah Harris popped a long jump shot and the teams went to the locker-room with Bertie ahead, 22-11.

Weldon tried making it a more physical game in the third quarter and the Falcons made the visitors pay by connecting at the free throw line, making four of seven foul shot attempts.

Some rough play cost Weldon a technical foul, but Bertie merely drained the charity hoop and continued on with their game, which by now was a dozen-point lead, 30-18, after three quarters.

The Falcons outscored the Chargers 10-2 in the final frame for the 20-point victory before heading to SW Edgecombe for one last non-conference game before welcoming Pasquotank in on Friday.

The Panthers and Falcons staged some classic battles a season ago, and Lyons was asked if she expected more of the same in 2013.

“Just come see the game,” she said with a smile and a wink. “Just come see the game.”