COLLEGE PARK — The Griffin Bears basketball team hung with subregion foe North Clayton for the first quarter, but it was all North Clayton afterwards, as the homestanding Eagles flew past the Bears 61-45 Friday night in Region 4-AAAA Division B action at North Clayton High.

With the win, North Clayton holds on to third place in the subregion standings at 10-8 overall and 7-4 in the region. Griffin dropped its second straight game to fall to 11-7, 5-5 and stay in fourth place.

Kelvin Waldon gave Griffin its first lead of the game at 5-2 after sinking a 3-pointer, but that was the highlight for the Bears in the quarter. North Clayton started well, but the Bears showed some toughness and only trailed 16-14 at the end of the first.

The second quarter was ugly for the Bears. North Clayton outscored Griffin 15-6 in the quarter, making several shots while the iron was unkind to the Bears. The Eagles led 31-20 at the half.

Griffin cut the deficit to 9 at 35-26 halfway through the third quarter, but North Clayton opened the floodgates after that. The Eagles went on a 7-2 run to lead 42-28 with 1:00 left in the third, thanks in part to treys by Cedric Campbell and Justin Varner. The Bears missed 9 shots in the quarter (including 5 treys) and the Eagles led 45-30 heading into the fourth quarter.

It was all Eagles, all the time in the final stanza. North Clayton opened up its biggest lead of the game, 53-34, with 5:06 remaining and coasted from there for the final 61-45 margin.

"I believe we were just a step slow tonight," said Bears head coach Prelvis Paster. "We probably were pretty tired and that's why we missed our shots, including a few layups."

Griffin was led by Rayshod Armstrong with 12 points, 5 rebounds and an assist and Waldon finished with 9 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 blocks. The Bears did a good job on Eagles senior Stafan Bradley, but he still led NC with 13 points while D'Anthony Franklin added 12 and Varner chipped in 9 for the Eagles.

Griffin hosted Northside-Warner Robins Saturday and plays subregion foe Jonesboro Tuesday evening at 7:30 p.m. at The House. Jonesboro beat Griffin 46-39 on Jan. 4 in the teams' first meeting.