The No. 9-ranked Andalusia Bulldogs cruised to a 70-38 victory over Pleasant Home on Friday night to give Anthony Clark a win against his alma mater in Pleasant Home.

Clark also spent several years coaching at Pleasant Home, and won back-to-back state titles with Eagles. Current Pleasant Home basketball coach Troy Turman was a player during for Clark’s Eagles when they won the pair of state titles.

“I love this place,” Clark said of Pleasant Home. “As a coach, it’s tough playing against your former school and one of your former players because you want the best for them. You have to separate the two, but make no mistake about it, I am a Bulldog.”

Andalusia Trey Wilkerson got the first points of the game when he knocked down a pair of free throws.

Pleasant Home answered right back with jumper from Tyler Myrick.

The Eagles then grabbed the lead when Robert Scott connected with a 3-pointer.

Andalusia’s R.J. Drish responded with a 3-ball of his own to knot the game 5-5.

On the other end of the court, Scott kept the hot hand and buried a 3-pointer to put Pleasant Home up 8-5.

B.J. Anderson dropped in a layup and was fouled on the attempt. Anderson hit the free throw to tie the game at 8-8.

Scott remained dialed in from deep and hit his third 3-pointer in as many tries to put the Eagles back on top.

Not to be out down, Drish nailed another 3-pointer to tie that game 11-11.

Hunter Ward put Pleasant Home up when he hit 1-of-2 free throws.

Drish turned the heat and caught fire with another 3-pointer that gave Andalusia a 14-12 lead heading into the second period.

The Bulldog faithful rose to their feet at the start of the second period when Curtis Daniels came up with a steal and raced down to the other end of the court.

Daniels went up and laid the ball hard off the glass for the trailing Anderson who caught the ball with two hands and rocked the rim with monsterous dunk.

Midway through the second period, smoke must have been coming off Drish’s fingertips as he continued to catch fire from behind the arc.

Drish ended the second period with 15 points including three 3-pointers.

Anderson and Wilkerson each added two points in the second half of the Drish show.

At halftime, the Bulldogs increased their lead to 33-22.

Anderson sparked to life in the second half of the game and added 15 points in the third period to push Andalusia up to a 58-31 lead.

The Bulldogs continued to apply pressure in the fourth period and held off the Eagles for a 70-38 victory.

Drish led the way for the Bulldogs with 29 points.

Anderson finished with 22 points for Andalusia.

“I was really proud of the team effort tonight,” Clark said. “B.J. struggled to get going in the first half, but R.J. really stepped up and carried in the first half of the game. Allan (George) was out tonight because of a recruiting visit and I was wondering how we would play without him, and I was really proud of the way R.J. stepped up.”

Scott was the top scorer for the Eagles with 13 points.

Myrick finished the night with 12 points.

“I really thought we played hard tonight and we played with a lot of passion,” Pleasant Home head coach Turman said. “When you play a good team like Andalusia, you have to have guys that step up, and tonight I felt like we had some guys that tried to do that. Our problem right now is that we are too inconsistent, but we are going to hit our stride.”

In varsity girls’ action, the Lady Eagles downed the Lady Bulldogs 52-23.

Alex Crittenden led the Lady Bulldogs with 8 points.

River Baldwin was the top scorer for the Lady Eagles with 37 points in the victory.

“In the first half, I thought we played well and were able to get the ball down to River,” Lady Eagles’ head coach Jerry Davis said. “Anytime we can do that, we are going to have success.”