AHOSKIE – It was easy early, but not as much later.

Ridgecroft School’s varsity girl’s basketball team jumped out to a 14-0 lead, but held off a rally by non-conference foe Bethel Christian Academy to secure a 46-22 win here Thursday night.

The game started well for the home team as Ridgecroft grabbed a 12-0 lead after one quarter and extended the advantage to 14 before the Lady Eagles got on the board.

Brice Harrison paced the first quarter with six points, including the first hoop of the game. Emily Cooke and Miller Bryant also scored for the Lady Rams.

It was Cooke who pushed the lead to 14-0 with 7:23 to play in the second quarter before Jessica Howerton scored for Bethel.

Sara Hackney, however responded for the Lady Rams to push the home team’s lead to 16-2 with 5:16 still to play.

Bethel, however, roared back from that point, getting a hoop from Amanda Outlaw which ignited a 7-0 spurt for the Lady Eagles. Kristen Adams followed with a free throw before Elizabeth Farmer hit back-to-back buckets that closed the Bethel deficit to 16-9 with 1:55 to play in the first half.

Lauren Colson stopped the spurt with a hoop for Ridgecroft 20 seconds later while Cooke scored again before the second quarter ended answered only by a Farmer free throw that left Ridgecroft ahead 20-10 at the intermission.

Hackney started the second half with a hoop for the Lady Rams, but Bethel responded with another 7-0 spurt. Farmer stared the run with a three-pointer that was followed by scores from Howerton and Charitee Dunlow as Bethel closed within 22-17.

Ridgecroft got a quartet of free throws from Cooke as they pushed back ahead 26-17 before a Kelsie Conner bucket made it 26-19.

The Lady Rams exerted themselves again in the closing minutes of the third period, going on a 7-0 run of their own to grab a 33-19 lead heading into the final period of play.

Cooke had three points to lead the spurt which Hackney and Harrison each added a hoop.

The fourth quarter started with the Rams continuing to pull away as Bryant, Harrison and Cooke had successive scores to push the Ridgecroft lead to 40-19 with 6:05 to play in the contest.

Harrison added another bucket before Adams stopped the spurt with a Bethel score with 4:22 remaining in the game.

Cooke, Hackney and Nikki Smith closed out the game for the Rams while Bethel got a free throw from Howerton in the final minutes.

Ridgecroft was led by 13 points from Cooke while Harrison added 12. Hackney contributed nine and Bryant had four. Colson and Smith added two each.

“We gave good effort tonight,” said second-year coach Susan Oliver. “I think we moved the ball pretty well on offense.”

Bethel was led by Farmer’s eight points and Howerton’s seven. Adams added three while Conner and Outlaw scored two each.