ROANOKE RAPIDS — The object of the game was very simple for the Northampton-East basketball team — get the ball to No. 12 and let the other floor players do all the dirty work.

Randy Wrenn | The Daily Herald Halifax Academy’s Ashton Bradley (34) finds out the hard way that basketball is also a contact sport as she finds herself in the middle of Lady Rams, Shikara Shoulars,left, Ashley Boyce and Jomecka Deloatch (3). Advertisement

The strategy worked to perfection as Ram guard Patrice Williams scored a game-high 29 points in NCHS-East’s, 43-36, victory over Halifax Academy in the opening round of the Kiwanis Women’s Basketball Tip-Off Tournament.

Williams, the Rams’ speedy point guard, scored all nine of NCHS-East points in the first quarter and 18 of their 20 first half points. The Rams were up, 20-8, at half-time.

“She’s our best player, so of course we are going to get the ball in her hands,” NCHS-East Head coach Rick Heckler said. “Plus, she is pretty hard to stop.”

Easily the fastest player on the court, Williams scored the first 12 points of the game for the Rams. Her teammates didn’t crack the scoring column until Shikara Shoulars hit a lay-up at the 5:27 mark of the second quarter. Halifax Academy outscored NCHS-East 12-8 in the third quarter to pull within eight, 28-20, heading into the fourth. The Vikings would pull to within six on two separate occasions and within four, 32-28, after two free throws from Ashley Sawyer and again moments later after a lay-up from Erica Smith. At that point, Williams took the game over ... again.

The junior got eight in a row to push the Rams lead to 12 with less than two minutes remaining in the game. “She is an all conference player,” Heckler said about Williams.

Ashley Boyce was the Rams second leading scorer with seven. “We started to get the ball inside more the second half,” Heckler added.

The game started off typical of any season opener with turn over a plenty and points hard to come by. By the fourth quarter the pace and the intensity picked up for both teams.

“We came out with some pre-game jitters,” Heckler said. “But once we settled down we did some good things.”

Sawyer led the Vikings with 14 points. Anna Spragins was next with 14. Halifax Academy will play Warren County today at 3:30 p.m. NCHS-East will meet conference foe Southeast Halifax at 6:30 p.m.