Today, in the South Regional tournament finals, the Andalusia Lady Bulldogs will meet Thomasville for the fourth time this season to determine who will go on to the state finals in Birmingham.

The last time the two teams met was during the girls Class 4A, Area 3 championship game on Feb. 9, where Thomasville (18-5) defeated Andalusia (24-3) in overtime, 60-56.

Andalusia coach Bennie Shellhouse said his team is anxious to get out on the court today.

“I think they’re are excited to be able to play Thomasville again,” he said.

Shellhouse said right now the team’s mindset is trying to acquire their goal.

“They’re pretty focused in trying to get to their goal,” he said. “Their goal is to get to Birmingham this year.”

At practice Friday, Shellhouse said the team was going to work on rebounding and cutting off the drive to the basket.

“We’ll do that more in drills,” he said. “We’ll do a lot of defensive drills and rebounding effort and shooting free throws.”

Shellhouse added he hopes to hold Thomasville at 40 points.

“I’d like to hold them to about 40 and I feel like we can score more than 40 points,” he said. “ If we can hold them down and rebound, I think that is the key to the ball game (Saturday).

“None of us thought we’d be here,” he said. “It’s been a blessing for us.”

Andalusia freshman Alexis Horton, who scored 15 points in her team’s win against St. James Thursday, said her team hopes for an even better effort against Thomasville today.

“I am just hoping that we can play better,” Horton said.

Tip off today at the Class 4A finals of the South Regional tournament at Troy University in Trojan Arena is 12:20 p.m.

Look for complete game coverage in the Tues., Feb. 24 edition of the Star-News.