BIRMINGHAM — It was a tough loss and end to a season for the Andalusia Lady Bulldogs Wednesday at the Class 4A state semifinals in Birmingham.

Andalusia lost to Anniston, 60-41, at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex Arena.

Anniston’s Tacouya Allen scored 24 points to help lead her team to the state finals on Friday against Midfield.

The Lady Bulldogs ended their season with a 25-4 record.

“First of all, I would like to give thanks to God and our Lord and savior to be where we are right now,” Anniston coach Eddie Bullock said.

At halftime, Andalusia was in the lead, 26-24, and Bullock said that he encouraged his team to make wise decisions on the court.

“I told them at halftime that we’ve got to make an adjustment and you’ve got to stop gambling,” he said. “I told my girls basically not to worry about missing the shots, just keep running.”

Andalusia only scored four points in the third quarter compared to Anniston’s 13.

“(Anniston) played pretty good man-to-man defense,” Andalusia coach Bennie Shellhouse said. “They are the best man-to-man team we’ve competed against this year. I thought we had plenty of opportunities.

“We drove to the basket and it just seemed like there was a lid on top of the basket,” he said. “We had a lot of opportunities to score, but just never could.”

Shellhouse said he has a lot to be thankful for having made it this far this season.

“I like to say that I thank God for what we’ve had this year,” he said. “We’ve had a great group of girls to work with. My seniors this year — Jereesa Curry was obviously hurt but we played for her a little bit.

“Chantavia Lawrence stepped up and came out big for us,” he said. “We’ve had great support from Anjelica White and Marqueasia Tyson. I thought we played with a lot of heart and represented our school real well. I feel like we’ve had a fantastic season.”

Anniston finished the game putting up 23 points in the fourth quarter, compared to Andalusia’s 11.

Helping Allen in scoring was Ashley Gray, who added 16.

The leading scorers for Andalusia were Lawrence with 13 points and Alexis Horton with 11.