Andalusia defeats Red Level 61-28 Thursday

Andalusia started pressing Red Level and the Tigers didn’t have an answer as the Bulldogs won 61-28 on Thursday night.

This win was the Bulldogs’ first since Dec. 6, when they beat Opp 80-53 in a regular-season contest. Last night’s game was the start of Andalusia’s run in its 47th annual invitational tournament.

The Bulldogs advance to face Elba tonight at 7:30 in the tournament’s second round. Red Level plays Opp at 4:30 p.m. today.

Robertson was playing another former player in RLS coach Allen Catrett. Catrett played at point guard under Coach’s system while in high school.

The Andalusia coach said Catrett is doing a good job with a young team.

“What we beat them was with our pressure,” Robertson said. “You play them a half-court game, they’re good enough to do some damage. He does a good job with them. He put his program in, and they play hard. That’s all you can ask of them.”

Andalusia had its way with the Tigers from the start of the game, creating turnovers and getting easy buckets to race out to a 20-0 lead. AHS led 22-8 after the first period.

The Bulldogs led 30-10 in the third, and took a 35-10 lead into halftime.

AHS didn’t let up in the third as it took a 52-18 lead after Roberston let his B-team boys get some playing time.

Later in the fourth period, Andalusia’s Ke’Shun Townsend was trying to convert on the other end after a steal with Red Level’s Spencer Stallworth closing the gap. When Townsend reached the basket, Stallworth jumped up from behind and came down funny on his hip and right arm. He was helped off the court after a few minutes and walked to the bench on his own.

Catrett doesn’t comment on injured players, but did say that Andalusia did a good job against his Tigers’ attack.

“We’re our own worst enemy,” he said. “We’ve got to fix what’s wrong with us first. We play hard, but we’ve got to play smarter, we’ve got to take care of the basketball and we’ve got to be more patient.”

Andalusia senior Jayden Ellison, who led the charge in the first period, scored 18 points to lead the Bulldogs. Phillip James came in at a close second with 12 points.

Kendarious Townsend and Ellison got back-to-back steals for a 4-0 lead in the first. Townsend later added a 3-pointer for a 7-0 lead.

Devante Jackson later got a bucket on a foul shot to make it 10-0 with 5:06 on the clock. James made it 12-0 on a jumper and RLS had to call a timeout with 4:38 left.

Ellison got a steal and converted to make it 16-0. Tevor Parker got a steal and passed to James for a 20-0 lead.

Red Level’s William Crawford made the Tigers’ first points with 2:13 left in the first. Stallworth backed him up with a lone 6-0 run to make it 20-8.

Jamal Hourel, a freshman for AHS, got a jumper off of an inbound pass to make it 28-10 in the second period.

Crawford made two buckets in the third period and a jumper later on to give RLS a 50-18 game.

Glen Crayton scored the first points for the B-team for AHS on a jumper, and later made a sweet pass to Ian Peek, a sophomore, who converted on a three-point and-1.

Stallworth did most of the scoring for RLS before his fal lin the fourth period.

Crawford and Stallworth led RLS with 13 points each.

“We’re going to get in the gym, we’re going to fix some mistakes, and we’ll be back against Opp (today),” Catrett said.

Ke’Shun Townsend and Montel Lee had six points each. Jackson and Kendarious Townsend chipped in five points each for Andalusia.