The Andalusia Bulldogs fought hard on Thursday night, but the Class 6A Dothan Tigers were able to leave Andalusia High School with a 46-31 victory.

“I saw some things that I liked, but we are still making too many mental mistakes,” Andalusia head coach Marshall Locke said. “This was a really good Dothan team and we will learn from this. We play teams like this early in the season so that we can be tested and learn from it.”

Andalusia started the game aggressively and pass to Jaxon Rudolph led to a foul and two free throw attempts from Rudolph.

Rudolph sank both free throws.

After Dothan tied the game 2-2, B.J. Anderson popped a mid-range jumper from the corner to put Andalusia up 4-2.

Dothan then went up 5-4 when Kevin Morris was fouled while making a basket. Morris converted the free throw and gave the Tigers their first lead of the game.

Andalusia’s James Montgomery and Alex Sheridan teamed up to put the Bulldogs up 10-6, but Dothan closed out the first period with an 8-0 run to take a 14-10 lead into the second period.

The Tigers increased the lead to 17-10 with a 3-pointer to open up the second period.

Andalusia answered with a strong layup from KeShun Townsend, but the TIgers then upped the score to 20-12.

Trevor Parker chipped into the Tigers’ lead when he converted a layup on strong drive along the baseline.

The Bulldogs continued to chip away at the lead when Zack Woods knocked down a pair of free throws to make the score 20-16.

Woods hit two more free throws heading into halftime, but another 3-pointer from Dothan left the Bulldogs trailing 23-18 heading into the third period.

Rudolph got the scoring started in the third period after he hauled down an offensive rebound, but that was one of just two Bulldog baskets in the third period.

The Tigers found their groove shortly after the third period began and forced multiple turnovers before the Andalusia offense could get over half court.

Andalusia got another basket with about two minutes left in the third, but the Bulldogs trailed 32-22.

The Tigers continued the scoring in the third period and held a 38-22 advantage heading into the final frame.

Anderson got things started for the Bulldogs in the fourth period with a smooth jumper and Sheridan followed with put back to cut the score to 40-26.

Anderson added a pair a free throws to trim the led down to 12, but Morris went on to throw back-to-back monster dunks to put the game out of reach.

The Bulldogs got a layup from Townsend and a free throw from Glenn Crayton to end the scoring and leave the Bulldogs with a 46-31 defeat.

Anderson led the Bulldogs in scoring with 8 points.

Woods, Montgomery, Rudolph, Townsend and Sheridan each finished with 4 points.

“We are just our own worst enemy right now,” Locke said. “We have to get better at taking care of the ball and learn to do the little things right. We didn’t play bad, but we just made too many mental mistakes. When did a good job of keeping their big man (Norris) out of the game and we limited their best player, No. 2 (Kobe Baggett) to just 5 points. We are getting better, but we still have a lot of things that we have to improve.”

In B-team action, the Bulldogs fell 39-34 in overtime to the Tigers.

R.J. Drish led the Bulldogs with 12 points and Curtis Daniels added 8 points.

“We did a good job fighting our way back into the game,” Bulldog B-team coach Brad Goldman said. “Down the stretch, though, we missed four free throws that could have put the game away, and they just outlasted us in overtime. I thought R.J. Drish had a really good night shooting to help get us back in the game, and he also did a good job rebounding.