AHOSKIE – It was a game of two halves.

Bertie High School held a 10-point advantage at the intermission of Thursday’s semifinal game in the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald Holiday Classic sponsored by United County Joe Murray Realty.

The Rams of Northampton County High School n East, however, won the second half by 12 points and edged the Falcons 56-54 to earn a spot in the boy’s tournament championship game.

The Falcons maintained a 43-38 lead after three quarters, but Northampton really forged their comeback in the final period.

Daryl Boone scored just 30 seconds into the final period to trim the Northampton deficit to three (43-40). After a free throw from Bertie, The Rams got a hoop and free throw from Deshawn Vick and then a bucket from James Long that put East in front 45-44.

Bertie responded with a hoop from Tyson Perry to take the lead back and then Demar Smith and Perry exchanged scores to leave the Falcons up by one (48-47).

A Quayshan Deloatch free throw with 3:08 to play tied the game at 48-all.

The game was tied again, this time at 50, when Vick hit a free throw with 1:42 to play to give the Rams a one-point lead.

Bertie responded with another bucket from Perry to take the lead back.

When Vick scored with 1:11 to play, he helped the Rams surge back ahead. Deloatch added two free throws to give Northampton a 55-52 advantage.

Bertie’s Dequan Williams hit two free throws with 29 seconds to play to get the Falcons within one (55-54).

Long hit 1-of-2 from the line with five seconds left to give the Rams the 56-54 advantage.

Bertie got off a shot to win the game with two seconds to play, but the shot just missed.

Northampton’s Jeff Ramsey said he was glad to get his first win as Head Coach of the Rams.

“You’ve heard the phrase, ‘get the monkey off your back,’ but it was like a gorilla off mine,” he mused. “Coming back home is something I wanted to do, but it has been tough.

“It was really good to get it in a tournament with that type of tradition,” he added.

Bertie took the early lead on a pair of free throws from Desmond Williams and a triple by Perry, but Northampton responded with a hoop from Boone and a three-pointer from Long.

The Falcons led 10-8 with just under three minutes to play in the first quarter when Long buried a triple and Vick scored to give the Rams a 13-10 lead. They held a 13-12 advantage after one quarter.

Bertie dominated the second quarter, scoring the first seven points to take a 19-13 advantage. Williams, Brown and Travis Bond all scored during the spurt.

Northampton answered with a Deloatch three-pointer that sparked an 8-4 run.

The Falcons, however, went on a 7-0 run to close out the quarter. Dequan Williams had four points on the spurt while Orlando Dobbin had two as Bertie led 31-21 at the intermission.

Northampton was able to chip away at the lead in the third quarter and trailed by five heading into the final period.

The win put the Rams into the finals of the tournament last night (Friday) against Hertford County while the Falcons squared off with Gates County High School.

East (56): James Long n 20, Deshawn Vick n 12, Quayshawn Deloatch n 11, Daryl Boone n 7, Demar Smith n 4, Rudolph Bishop n 2

Bertie (54): Desmond Williams n 12, Dequan Williams n 12, Tyson Perry n 10, Brandon Brown n 10, Travis Bond n 4, Anthony Murray n 2, O.J. Dobbin n 2