The Bulldogs took advantage of a strong first-half performance on the way to an opening win Tuesday night over Elba, 90-59.

Andalusia dominated the first half by putting 50 points on the board compared to Elba’s 34.

Head coach Richard Robertson said, despite the win, the play from his team could have been better.

“We were sloppy,” Robertson said. “We didn’t play smart and made too many mistakes. We had them size wise, but they challenged us. They took it at us. Our defensive goal was 50 points and they scored 59. We got fouled and missed free throws and we just didn’t play well.”

Robertson acknowledged that the team is happy to have won, but added that players making the same mistakes are still a problem.

“We were proud to win, but with the time and effort we invested in this bunch, some of these guys have been around and aren’t supposed to be making the same mistakes,” he said. “Some people think when you win, that’s all you’re looking for. What you’re looking for is development and progress to compare.

“Every guy that went on that floor (Tuesday night) was here last year and played in the last ball game, which was in the playoffs,” he said. “I’m disappointed about our progress. In the past, we haven’t had time to work, but we’ve had plenty of time to work this year. The things we’re making mistakes on are things we work on all the time.”

Robertson said the team will be going to the basics before Friday night’s game against Enterprise.

“We’re working on the fundamentals,” Robertson said. “The players want to revert back to the old ways, but we’re going to be a structured group. I’m not sleeping (Tuesday night) until I find a solution for this.

“The thing I liked the most about tonight was when we substituted there wasn’t any drop offs,” he said. “One did just as well as the other.”

At halftime, Robertson said the adjustments that were made were more in line with coverage on defense.

“I expected (Elba) to come back out and play as man coverage rather than zone,” he said. “We went to the motion offense and got (the ball) inside. If people wonder why I’m upset, it’s because (tonight) we would shoot it and miss it and, because we’re bigger, get the rebound and shoot it back, but we’re not going to do that against a good team. You’re not going to do that against a team with size.

“We started off playing good defense,” he said. “We accomplished what we wanted to do and they called two timeouts in the first quarter and that’s good.”

Robertson said the team has been working on that part of the game at practice.

“That was the thing we’ve been working on at practice,” he said. “I just wanted to see how it worked against another opponent. We had some good moments and we had some bad moments. We never trailed, but I still wasn’t satisfied with all of their execution.”

Leading scorers for the Bulldogs were Nico Johnson with 31 points and O’Brien Curry with 17 points.

Johnson also had eight offensive rebounds and 13 defensive rebounds for the night.

Andalusia will host Enterprise this Friday night. B-team starts play at 4:30 p.m.