BULLDOGS BACK IN ACTION: Andy basketball plays strong in summer tourney
Published 12:00 am Friday, June 22, 2018
- Elijah McClain goes up for a layup. Josh Dutton/Star-News
The Andalusia High School basketball team played well on Thursday in summer play date at Auburn University.
“This was the second year that we have gone to this camp,” head coach Brad Goldman said. “We played teams that what higher classifications than us. Every team we played had at least one player that was being recruited by Auburn.”
The Bulldogs weren’t able to pull out any wins on the day, but Goldman said was still pleased with what he saw from his players.
“These were some very good teams,” Goldman said. “We started off with Smiths Station then played Brewbaker Tech and Deshler. It went about like we thought it would. We have to find out who our scorers are going to be this year. We lost about 85 percent of our offense from last year. We scraped all day long and played really good on defense. We had a chance to win every game, but a few missed layups down the stretch hurt us.”
Despite losing many players from last year’s team, Goldman is optimistic about the Bulldogs this season.
“We had a lot of young guys step up this summer and we are going to need more of that,” Goldman said. “Keaun Samuel has been our leading scorer pretty much every game this summer. Elijah McClain has been doing a really good job of getting into the passing lanes and coming up with steals. Luis Reyes finally got his shot going today and hit some big 3-pointers.”
Once the Bulldogs find their offense, Goldman said they will by fine.
“I’ve been impressed with how they have been coming along,” Goldman said. “We should be fine once we get back to practice and get our offense going. We were in every game that we played this summer, but a few missed layups down the stretch have been costly. Our defense has been really good and we have done a good job of rebounding. Once we find out who our scorers are going to be we will be fine.”
First year head coach Goldman said he is excited about seeing what the Bulldogs can do on the court this season.
Goldman has been an assistant coach for the varsity team for the past few seasons and the head coach of the B-team, he was named interim varsity head coach earlier this month.
Andalusia graduated many players from last year’s team, but look to make another run at the playoffs this year.
Last year, Andalusia made it to the Class 4A Final Four, but fell to eventual state champion Cordova.