Andalusia took the lead mid-way through the first period and held on late as the Bulldogs beat Ashford 71-62 in area action on Tuesday night.

AHS improves to 13-8 on the season, and 2-1 in Class 4A, Area 3.

In girls action, the Lady Bulldogs walked away with a 69-33 rout over the Lady Yellow Jackets to claim the lead in their area.

The Lady Bulldogs improve to 14-2 overall, and 3-0 in the area.

Andalusia will visit Calera this Saturday in regular season action. B-team will tip off at 4 p.m.

Andalusia boys 71, Ashford boys 62

Jacard Townsend scored 29 points and got 11 rebounds for his second double-double in a row.

Lakelyus “Fathead” Adams and Joe Flowers finished in double figures to help lead the Bulldogs.

Flowers had 16 points, and Adams chipped in 11 points in a game where the Bulldogs took a 10-9 lead in the first period, and never let it go, despite allowing the Yellow Jackets to come within three points in the third period.

“If we would’ve made our free throws, then we’d be in our comfort zone,” AHS coach Richard Robertson said. “We didn’t do that.

“We’ve still got a lot of work to do, but we’ll keep on working,” he said.

The Bulldogs took a 17-13 lead off of a Flowers to Townsend pass on the inside.

When Andalusia would score, Ashford would answer with points of its own to keep the game tight.

The Yellow Jackets went on a 4-0 run late in the first period to cut the lead to 20-19 going into the second period.

Flowers scored 10 of his points in the second period to help Andalusia outscore Ashford 17-9 to take a 37-28 lead at half time.

Ashford trailed 48-45 late in the third period, but Andalusia went on a 6-0 run to help seal a 54-47 lead leading into the fourth period.

The Bulldogs went on to outscore Ashford 17-15 in the fourth period, taking a 12-point lead with more than four minutes remaining.

The Yellow Jackets nailed two 3-pointers in a row to cut the game back to eight points at 68-60.

Niguel Jones found Townsend, and then made the back-end of a pair of free throws to seal the win.

Ashford’s Troy Griggs had 18 points, and Rafael Alvarado had 15 points. Octavius Snell added 11 points for the Yellow Jackets.

In B-team action, Andalusia won 41-24.

Andalusia girls 69, Ashford girls 33

The Lady Bulldogs took a 6-0 lead in the first period, and outscored the Lady Yellow Jackets 22-4 in the second period to lead 39-12 at half time.

Alexis Horton led the Lady Bulldogs with 16 points and seven assists. Alison Daniels chipped in 12 points and seven rebounds, and Shi’Amber Townsend had 11 points.

Tyleshia Malcolm had a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds for AHS.

Alectricia Barnes had seven assists and seven steals, and eight rebounds on the night.

With a healthy half time lead, the Lady Bulldogs put up a bad performance in the third period.

AHS girls coach Bennie Shellhouse called it one of his team’s “lulls.”

“We quit playing in the third,” Shellhouse said. “We go through these lulls all the time where we don’t play hard.”

Andalusia outscored the Lady Yellow Jackets 19-12 in the third period.

“There’s one spot every game where we don’t play very well, and having to fight our way out of it,” Shellhouse said.

Crisshada Rogers led the Lady Yellow Jackets with 10 points.