It was an exciting night of high school basketball action at Andalusia High School last night for several reasons.

For starters, the B-team game went down to the wire with UMS-Wright winning 34-31.

Then, the No. 10-ranked Andalusia Lady Bulldogs upset the No. 6-ranked UMS-Wright Lady Bulldogs in convincing fashion, 48-33. The Andalusia Lady Bulldogs also won a coin toss and the right to host the Class 4A, Area 1 Tournament.

In the nightcap, the UMS-Wright Bulldogs erased a 16-point deficit for a 64-61 win in first-year Head Coach Anthony Clark's return to Covington County after leaving Pleasant Home at the end of last season.

His departure must not have upset too many Pleasant Home fans as many of the students and members of the Lady Eagles' basketball team left Straughn School after their game to attend the Andalusia game and cheer on UMS-Wright. The Pleasant Home Lady Eagles wore white T-shirts that read "Clark's Clan" in bright red letters. Many of the Pleasant Home players even chanted "U-M-S-Wright!" along with the cheerleaders, B-team players, varsity girls' players and other UMS-Wright fans at the game.

It was an exciting night of high school basketball.

The action began with the UMS-Wright B-team recording a 34-31 win after trailing 19-13 at the half and 24-21 at the end of three quarters.

Odarrius James was the leading scorer for Andalusia with 14 points. Also scoring for Andalusia were William Alverson, Kevin Huff, Jacob Cauley, Tyler Centner and Cherno Bah.

In the varsity girls' game, the AHS Lady Bulldogs needed a win to tie for the area title and force a coin toss to decide which pack of Lady Bulldogs would host the Class 4A, Area 1 Tournament. They got the win by a final score of 48-33.

Andalusia went on top 8-6 in the first quarter and stretched the lead to 24-15 in the second quarter.

A technical foul against UMS-Wright Head Coach Jessica Webb resulted in two points in the first half via two free throws.

Andalusia maintained its 9-point lead through the third quarter and pulled away in the final period with a 12-6 run for a 15-point win.

Ashley Johnson scored 24 points to lead the charge for Andalusia. Ann Huff added 11 points. Tanesha Wright, Kathy Crittenden and Apri Kilgore also scored for Andalusia.

UMS-Wright only had one player reach double figures in scoring with Toots Otts scoring 11. Morgan Ladner added 8. Also scoring for UMS-Wright were Tiffany Sanders (who fouled out with 1:19 left to play), Mary Murray Battiste and Gia DuPriest.

A coin toss was held a halfcourt just after the game with Andalusia Head Coach Marshall Locke calling "heads" and winning the coin toss and the right to hold the area tournament Feb. 10 and 13.

Andalusia is now 14-6 on the season with a 5-1 record in area play. The loss drops the UMS-Wright Lady Bulldogs to 20-4 on the season with a 5-1 area record.

In the varsity boys' game, what appeared to be a blowout win for the Andalusia Bulldogs ended up being a big comeback victory for the UMS-Wright Bulldogs.

Andalusia built a 25-9 lead in the first quarter and were on top by 10 points at the half by a score of 35-25.

UMS-Wright made a big run in the third quarter by pushing the ball up the court and canning a few big three-pointers, including one at the horn by Jameson Page, to cut Andalusia's lead to 2 points by a score of 50-48.

In the fourth quarter, UMS-Wright completed the comeback for a 64-61 win as Andalusia's last-second, three-point attempt fell short.

Brandon "Scooter" Wilson paced the Andalusia Bulldogs with 31 points. Josh Johnson added 11.

Also scoring for Andalusia were Lance Evans, Michael Cauley, Andrae Wright and Chris Cotton.

William Mitchell and Jameson Page both scored 18 for UMS-Wright. Dayne Cutrell added 13 points. Also scoring were Milan Williams, Herndon Rouse, John Hayes and Preston Dial.

UMS-Wright had a big game from the free-throw line canning 25-of-34 free-throw attempts. Andalusia was 13-of-19 from the charity stripe.

The UMS-Wright boys are now 8-16 on the season. Andalusia fell to 3-17.

All three Andalusia teams will be back in action on Tuesday, Feb. 3 at Brantley beginning at 6 p.m. The Bulldogs play in Pike County next Thursday and host Charles Henderson on Friday.