The No. 3 Andalusia boys scraped by with a two-point 60-58 area win at Clarke County on Saturday night.

Andalusia and Clarke County were tied at 10 points apiece after the end of the first quarter.

In the second quarter, Andalusia (13-2, 1-0 in Class 4A, Area 3) added 16 points compared to Clarke County’s seven to take a 26-17 lead at halftime.

At the end of the third quarter, Andalusia was ahead 44-32, but Clarke County did not go down without a fight. In the final quarter, Clarke County outscored Andalusia 26-16.

Andalusia coach Richard Robertson said Clarke County took advantage of his team’s weaknesses to capitalize and win the final quarter.

“We got out of sync,” he said. “We’ve got a plan for everything we do, but they outscored us by 10.”

Andalusia’s Jamal Curry led with 19 points and Jacard Townsend had 12. Derrick King also chipped in 10 points.

Clarke County’s Jamal Harris led his team with 11 points.

In B-team action, Clarke County beat Andalusia, 24-22.

Andalusia will host Hillcrest-Evergreen tonight in its second area game of the season. The B-team tips off at 4:30.

Robertson said in order for his team to be successful tonight, they need to play defense.

“(Hillcrest has) good athletes,” Robertson said. “They score a lot of points. For us to win, we’ve got to play good defense and that was our problem Saturday night.

“Our defensive goal is 50 points or less and they scored 58 on us,” he said. “They passed our goal. If you surpass our defensive goal, then you have a good chance of beating us.”

Andalusia girls 43,

Clarke County girls 35

The Andalusia girls held on to the lead late in the fourth quarter to take a 43-35 first area game win over Clarke County on Saturday night.

Andalusia coach Bennie Shellhouse said his team was “tired” because of the Red Level tournament last week.

“We looked tired,” he said. “We played four games in the last six days. We fought them in the end and in the last four minutes we did a good job of protecting the ball.”

Andalusia’s Shi’Amber Townsend led with 20 points and Alexis Horton had 10.

Shellhouse said his team looked especially strong on defense.

”I thought we did a lot better on the defensive rotations,” he said.

Andalusia (11-4, 1-0) will continue its area play tonight against Hillcrest-Evergreen.