Andalusia falls 58-50 to Carroll Tuesday night at home

Andalusia put together a better second half and went on to outscore Carroll-Ozark 17-13 in the final 4:25 of the game, but the Eagles prevailed in a 58-50 win over the Bulldogs on Tuesday night.

The Bulldogs trailed 29-11 at halftime after Carroll went on a 24-7 run to close out the first half.

AHS coach Richard Robertson said the boys played hard after a little bit of prodding at the break.

“I want them to be self starters,” Robertson said. “I don’t want to come in and jump on them to have them play hard. They don’t make mistakes intentionally. That’s why we practice so much. It’s repetition.

“They battled hard, and have been doing it all year,” he said.

AHS senior Montel Lee got the run going for the Bulldogs in the fourth period by making the front-end of a pair of foul shots. Lee went on to convert on a three-point play after Ozark’s Justin Blaha — a foreign exchange student — converted on a steal.

After Lee’s three-point play, the Bulldogs trailed 47-35.

What set up the final push from AHS was its use of a full-court press, which enabled the Bulldogs to force steals on the Eagles.

Jayden Ellison, an Andalusia senior, got a runner to make it 48-37, and Lee followed with a foul shot to make it a 10-point contest with 2:59 to go.

Carroll’s Christopher Snell increased the lead back to 11 with a foul shot.

Lee answered Snell’s shot with another three-point play after driving the paint, which is what the Bulldogs started focusing on at the start of the run. When Lee got the foul shot, it cut the Bulldogs’ deficit to 49-41 with 2:37 on the clock.

Lee wasn’t finished as he then went on to make another pair of foul shots, and got a steal and a layup to go to cut the lead to 50-45.

Everything was shifting Andalusia’s way after Snell was called for a double dribble. However, after a couple of missed opportunities at the rim, the Eagles made AHS pay for it when Kei Wiggins drove the court for an easy lay in to increase Carroll’s lead by seven.

Andalusia answered again when Devante Jackson got a 3-pointer with 1:09 left to keep it close.

Robertson called a timeout a second later but afterward, Carroll’s Alessandro Loda found Deri Patton in the paint, and Blaha drove the lane for two easy buckets to put the Eagles ahead 56-48.

Trevor Parker got Andalusia’s last bucket with 21 seconds left, from which the Eagles closed the deal by converting on a steal and making both foul shots on a 1-and-1.

AHS trailed 43-24 at the end of the third period.

The first half wasn’t a good one for the Bulldogs as costly turnovers and “missed assignments” netted their 18-point deficit at the break.

Carroll went on a 10-0 run to finish out the first period, and outscored AHS 14-7 in the second period.

The Bulldogs went 19-for-58 from the field in the loss.

Phillip James, who played well in the paint, backed in 18 points to lead the Bulldogs. Lee had 15 points.

Blaha led Carroll with 24 points. Wiggins dished in 14.

Andalusia will be back in action tomorrow night as it starts its annual Christmas invitational tournament. The Bulldogs play Red Level at 7:30 tomorrow.

In B-team action, Andalusia’s Jaden Brown made a go-ahead free throw to help lift the Bulldogs to a 40-39 win.

Ke’Shun Townsend led AHS with 16 points. Zach Woods and Alex Sheridan chipped in 10 points each.

The game was tied 37-37 with 28 seconds left, and Andy took a 39-37 lead after Woods made two free throws with 25.5 seconds left.

It was a close effort for the girls during the first half, but Carroll ran away with it with a 46-25 victory.

Andalusia only gave up one turnover in the first half, but went 8-for-48 from the field.

The Lady Bulldogs trailed 9-8 after the first period, and 17-14 at halftime.

Carroll led 34-20 after the third period.

Alexis Lawrence and Grace Burns led AHS with seven points each. D’Ashia Johnson chipped in with six points.

Loretta Gissendanner led Carroll with 17 points. Leighta Nance had 15 points.

AHS coach Brad Garner said the girls played well defensively until “we got in a situation where we were far enough behind that we started making chances.”

“We’re in a position where we got to chase and travel where we didn’t need to,” Garner said. “Once agin, we’ve got to make some shots. We made eight field goals in the entire basketball game. That’s got to get better.”