Florala won its second game of the season Tuesday night, defeating McKenzie at home, 41-39.

The Wildcats have been struggling for much of the season. Their first win was on Nov. 23, 2009, where they beat Goshen 54-43.

Florala coach Brad Garner said Tuesday night’s win was definitely needed.

“We have just been needing one,” he said. “We played hard and battled and got some things to go together (Tuesday night).

“We still struggled shooting the ball a little bit, but we just had some guys step up and make some key shots in some important situations,” he said. “We could have managed the end of the game a little bit better, but we didn’t turn it over.”

The Wildcats were down in both the first and second quarters, but ended up leading 11-10 after the first and 22-20 at halftime.

“The third quarter was our nemesis,” Garner said. “We scored five points and were down 30-27 at the end of the third, but we wound up winning.”

Garner said at one point, his team took a 36-30 lead in the final quarter, but McKenzie came back to lead 37-36 with three minutes left in the contest.

“We took care of the basketball late in the game,” Garner said. “That was a concern with McKenzie, as athletic as they were. McKenzie had two to three opportunities to tie the game and we held them to one-and-out. That’s a very important aspect of the game.”

The Wildcats improve to 2-14 overall, and 1-2 in Class 1A, Area 3.

Florala’s Lavoris Ball led in scoring with 13 points and Erik Vega had eight.

Garner said despite earning a second win, his team is taking it “step by step” when it comes to area.

“It’s probably too much to be thinking about area a lot,” he said. “We just need to concentrate on each game at a time. We play Kinston Friday night and we’ll try to get another win.

“I’m just proud for the kids,” he said. “Maybe they have the taste of that now. Sometimes you figure out how to win by winning. It’s good to learn from a win.”

In girls action, the Lady Wildcats won 58-26. Florala lost the B-team game, 34-31.

Florala will host area opponent Kinston on Friday, starting at 4:30 p.m. with the B-team.