The Andalusia Lady Bulldogs suffered an opening-game loss to Carroll-Ozark on Monday night, falling 51-39.

Andalusia coach Bennie Shellhouse said his team failed to score points close to the basket.

“Normally we drive the ball to the rim pretty good,” Shellhouse said. “We only shot four free throws all night.”

Andalusia’s Alexis Horton led in scoring with 16 points; Erica King had seven points; Shi’Amber Townsend had 10 points; and Amber Anderson had four points.

“I felt like we were ready, but we just didn’t execute real well,” Shellhouse said. “We didn’t run an offense almost the entire fourth quarter. We passed the ball around and took random shots instead of making plays. I think we can improve on our offensive end.

“On the defensive end, the girls coming in from volleyball are a little bit out of shape for basketball and that hurts a little bit,” he said. “We don’t have time to think about it now because we’ve got Enterprise Friday night.”

The Lady Bulldogs will hit the road again Friday to face the Lady Wildcats. They will follow the B-team game at 4:30 p.m.

Shellhouse said his defense has to step up in order for the team to be successful.

“We just hope to improve on our defensive pressure and hope to lessen the touch fouls,” he said. “We didn’t execute our plays and were caught out of our positions.”