The Andalusia Bulldogs pulled off a 56-43 victory over the T.R. Miller Tigers Tuesday night in the opening round of the 18th annual Red Level Christmas tournament at Red Level High School.

T.R. Miller got on the board first with a 3-pointer and a foul on the shot allowed the Tigers to convert a rare 4-point play to open up the game.

The Bulldogs rallied back with three baskets from Trevor Parker and then a jumper from Alex Sheridan put Andalusia on top 8-7.

Andalusia closed out the opening period with back-to-back 3-pointers from Zack Woods and Ke’Shun Townsend for a 14-7 lead.

A quick rally from the Tigers to start the second period cut Andalusia’s lead down to 14-13, and then T.R. Miller went on top 18-16 with a 3-pointer.

B.J. Anderson responded with a 3-pointer of his own to put Andalusia back on top 19-18.

After Townsend put the Bulldogs up 21-18, Woods and R.J. Drish knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers to give Andalusia a 27-18 lead.

Townsend ended the first half by going 2-for-2 at the free-throw line to give Andalusia a 29-21 lead at halftime.

The Tigers opened up the third period strong, but Andalusia’s powerful offense ended the period on a 9-3 run, including three straight points from Ian Peek to close out the period

The Tigers trimmed the Andalusia lead down to 47-37 with five minutes left in the game.

With three minutes left in the game, Woods knocked down another 3-pointer to give the Bulldogs a 54-36 lead.

The Bulldogs closed out the game with one free throw each from Woods and Peek to give Andalusia a 56-43 win.

“We had some break downs defensively at times” Andalusia head coach Marshall Locke said. “We weren’t executing like we should, but we started to execute at the end of the game.”

Locke said that trying to build a big lead while T.R. Miller struggled shooting was something that he knew that would have to do.

“They have a really good team over there at T.R. Miller,” Locke said. “They probably have the best pure shooter of any team that we will face this year, and I told the guys coming in that they (T.R. Miller) wouldn’t stay cold all night, and that we would have to take advantage of it if that did.”

Anderson and Sheridan led the Bulldogs with 11 points each and Woods added 10 points.

Townsend finished the night with 7 points.

Parker and Peek each added 6 points.

Drish accounted for 3 points and Jaden Brown rounded out the scoring with 2 points.

Andalusia will be back in action tonight when they take on Red Level in the semi-final round of the Red Level Christmas Tournament.

In other tournament action, Georgiana’s boys beat Pike County, and Pike County’s girls beat Georgiana.