TROY — Despite trailing by one point at halftime, the Andalusia Lady Bulldogs bounced back to defeat St. James, 54-46, Thursday in the first round at the Class 4A South Regional tournament.

At halftime, St. James led 23-22, but Andalusia came back and outscored the Lady Trojans 18-12 in the third and 14-11 in the fourth quarter.

During the second quarter, Andalusia lost its initial first quarter lead by putting up only 10 points compared to St. James’ 14.

Andalusia head coach Bennie Shellhouse said there are still improvements that need to be made before Saturday’s game against Thomasville.

“I thought we played a little sloppy on defense,” Shellhouse said. “We’ve had some key injuries this time of the year and it’s kind of got us out of sync defensively. Hopefully, we can fix those before Saturday.

“We weren’t quite as aggressive on the boards as we normally are,” he said. “That’s something we need to improve on. At this point in the season, you’re just happy for another win.”

Shellhouse said the difference between the first and second half goes back to defense.

“Defensive intensity,” he said. “We picked it up on defense a little bit and had some more steals. Also, they out rebounded us by eight rebounds in the first half. That right there was a big difference in the first half compared to the second half.

“In the second half, we got in a better position and I felt like we really tried to get after it a bit more,” he said.

Andalusia will play Thomasville on Saturday in the South Regional finals at 12:20 p.m.

Thomasville and Andalusia have already met three times previous this season — twice in area play and once at the area tournament in Andalusia.

“We felt like at the beginning that this was going to come down between us,” Shellhouse said. “We’ve beaten them twice and they have beaten us once. It should be a good match up. Rebounding is going to be key for us. They’re big and strong and it’s going to be tough.”

The leading scorers for Andalusia were Chantavia Lawrence with 16 points, Alexis Horton with 15, and Anjelica White and Erica King who both had eight points apiece.