The Florala Wildcats came up short of a win Monday night against Samson, losing 60-48.

The Wildcats were leading by seven points at halftime, but could not pull out the win, missing shots and turning the ball over.

Florala coach Brad Garner said the team had a very successful first half, but could not keep up the intensity later in the game.

“I thought the things we did in the first half, we were successful in doing,” Garner said. “I think Samson stepped it up considerably in the second half defensively and caused us some problems and we didn’t handle the pressure real well.”

Garner added there is still room for improvement.

“I saw some things that we did well,” he said. “I was pleased with the effort, I thought we played hard and competed. We’ve got to get some more guys in on the scoring.

“It’s hard to defend people when you’re missing shots and turning the ball over and that’s going to create an opportunity for (Samson) to run a fast break and we didn’t shoot it well in the second half particularly,” he said. “We turned the ball over a little bit too much.

I think we’ve got the kids, if we could settle down and learn to execute and find those things we need do to be successful, I think we’ve got the people to do it with.”

The main thing the Wildcats will work on in practice is “offensive execution,” Garner said.

“I think right now the biggest thing is offensive execution,” Garner said. “We’ve got to get some other defenses and offensive sets in where we can mix things up a little bit. We just haven’t had time to do it yet.”

Garner said the team lost a lot of steam at the tail end of the game for other reasons besides being in shape.

“I told the players that I thought we weren’t out of shape,” Garner said. “I think really it goes back to offense, because if you miss a lot of shots and turn the ball over, you’re having to play transition defense. I don’t think we’re out of shape, I think we didn’t play real smart at the end of the game.”

Leading scorers for the Wildcats were Dustin Hinson with 12 points and Houston Biddle with 10 points.

Florala will travel to play Goshen Friday and play starts at 4:30 p.m.