In order for the Andalusia Lady Bulldogs to be successful in their area this year, executing on defense will be key.

Andalusia coach Bennie Shellhouse said the area will be tough, with games against Thomasville, Clarke County and Hillcrest-Evergreen.

“There are just teams that we’re not familiar with that we’re playing against,” Shellhouse said. “Last year, we were very familiar with them because we played them a lot. These are new teams we haven’t played, especially Clarke County and Thomasville. That’s going to be something totally unexpected.”

Shellhouse said he is looking for his girls to play well on defense.

“I’m mostly concerned about us playing defense,” he said. “As long as we play defense and execute on offense and limit turnovers, I think we’ll be fine after that.

“We just have to limit those things. I’m more concerned more about us doing all those things we’re supposed to do.”

As far as what Shellhouse will do to change things up for area play, he said the team will be “more aggressive.”

“We’re hoping to be more of an attacking offense,” he said. “On the defensive side of the ball, we’re hoping to do some more full-court pressing. That was something we didn’t do a whole lot of last year. So, we’re going to do a lot more full-court press depending on our defense.”

Right now, Shellhouse said his team will still work on conditioning during the holidays to get ready for area.

In order to be successful this year, Shellhouse said limiting mistakes will be necessary in order to accomplish their goal of hosting an area tournament.

“We have to limit our turnovers and then capitalize when we get turnovers from the other team,” Shellhouse said. “Right now, we’re being a little passive. We really just need to improve on the defensive side of the ball.”