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Patrick McCorvey is under pressure from Monroe County Tigers, coached by Andalusia native Marshall Locke, as he takes a shot Friday night

D’Andrea Crittenden prepares to take a shot in the girls’ win Friday night. Christopher Smith/Star-News

Andalusia defeats Monroe County in overtime, 56-51

The Andalusia High School varsity boy’s basketball team fought hard for an overtime area win over Monroe County High School, 56-51.

Monroe County got on the board first, but Keaun Samuel quickly answered with a layup to tie the score at 2-2.

Both teams fought hard in the first period, but the Bulldogs took the lead with 1:38 left in the first with a three-pointer by Roosevelt Weaver and a layup by Elijah McClain, making the score 12-8.

Samuel increased the lead at the end of the first period with a layup to make it 14-11.

McClain began the second period with a massive dunk, but Monroe County quickly answered, making the score 16-13.

Again, McClain had an acrobatic layup and increased the lead to 18-13.

With 4:03 left in the half, Samuel got a taste of the dunk fever by throwing one down himself making the score 21-13.

Monroe County hit a three-pointer with 7 seconds left in the half to cut the Andy lead to 24-18.

Patrick McCorvey got the Bulldogs on the board first in the third period, but the Tigers answered right back to make it a six-point game.

Monroe County started creeping up on the Bulldogs, always getting two points behind.

Samuel threw down another dunk at the end of the third period, but Monroe County hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to end the period, 36-31.

Monroe County got on the board first in the fourth period, but McClain answered right back to make the score 38-33. The Tigers didn’t hold back after that and hit a three-pointer and a layup to tie the score at 38-38.

Weaver hit the go-ahead layup with 5:45 left in the game, but the Tigers answered quickly with another layup.

The teams went back and forth on the board until Monroe County started increasing their lead to 49-45 with 2:20 left in the game.

Freshman Omare Latimer came in clutch in the fourth period and showed why he was on the court, when he got fouled and made both free throws to cut the Tiger lead to 49-47.

Latimer was then fouled again on the three-point line with 21 seconds left to go in the game. He made the first free throw, missed the second and made the third to tie the game, 49-49.

Monroe County had the ball, but decided to run the clock out.

In overtime, the Bulldogs were scoring left and right. McClain got on the board first, Samuel sank a jumper and McClain hit another layup to make the score 55-49 with 1:30 left in overtime.

The Bulldogs fouled Monroe County and they sank two free throws, making the score 55-51.

With 4.6 seconds left in the game, Latimer was fouled again and sank one free throw to end the game 56-51.

McClain and Samuel led the Bulldog scoring effort with 18 points.

“We played really hard,” Andalusia head coach Brad Goldman said. “We talked all week about having another gear, and not letting other people outplay us. Recently people have been playing harder than us, and that can’t happen with the team that we have, but tonight that didn’t happen. We battled and we acted like we needed to win this game because we really did. We have been on a losing streak, so tonight we got back on the right side of things.”

With the win tonight, the Bulldogs broke a six-game losing streak. They improved to 6-12 overall and 1-5 in the area.

Andalusia will play Luverne High School on Thurs., January 31, at 7 p.m.

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