The Pleasant Home Eagles and the Florala Wildcats split varsity basketball games on Tuesday night in Florala in the opening night of area play.

GIRLS

PLEASANT HOME 49, FLORALA 42

In the opening varsity game of the night, the Lady Eagles jumped out front early and held off the Lady Wildcats for a 49-42 victory.

Pleasant Home’s River Baldwin accounted for the first bucket of the game, but Florala tied the game right back up with a layup from Morgan Jackson.

Makayla Parker then knocked down a 3-pointer to put Florala up 5-3.

Baldwin finished the period strong for the Lady Eagles to put Pleasant Home up 11-7 heading into the second period.

In the second period, Hope Gunter had six points, Abbie McDuffie, Rae Rae Coleman, Bella Worley and Baldwin each had four points to put the Lady Eagles out front 33-18 at halftime.

The Lady Eagles’ defense put the brakes on the Lady Wildcats as they didn’t allow Florala to score a single point in the third period.

Pleasant Home was on top 45-18 heading into the final period.

Kallie Grace Turman got a bucket to start the fourth period for the Lady Eagles, but the Lady Wildcats found life.

Jackson accounted for 13 points in the final period for the Lady Wildcats, including going 7-for-8 from the free-throw line.

It wouldn’t be enough to keep the Lady Eagles from picking up a 49-42 win.

Baldwin led the Lady Eagles with 21 points in the win.

Jackson led the Lady Wildcats with 17 points.

BOYS

FLORALA 69,

PLEASANT HOME 65

In the final game of the evening, the Wildcats used a strong offense to knock off the Eagles 69-65 in the first area game of the season.

The Wildcats got off to a hot start with buckets from Rashaad Coleman, Mekhi James, Anthone Stone and Andeon White that had Florala out front 11-0 early in the first period.

Pleasant Home began to dig into the lead with put back by Robert Scott for the first Pleasant Home basket of the game.

Mason Kelley followed with a layup to cut further into the Wildcat lead.

Tyler Myrick then converted an and-1 opportunity to make the score 11-7.

At the end of the first period, the Wildcats held a 15-11 lead.

Pleasant Home took the lead early in the second period when Scott was fouled in the process of hitting a 3-pointer. Scott hit the free throw on the rare 4-point play to put the Eagles up 17-15.

The lead didn’t hold up for long as Stone and James took over to put the Wildcats up 35-30 at halftime.

In the third period, Nic Woods picked up nine points for the Eagles, but Florala was still up 55-45 heading into the final period.

James was on fire from the free-throw line in the final period for the Wildcats, going 6-for-6 to help give Florala a 69-65 victory.

Woods led the Eagles with 21 points in the loss.

Myrick had 13 points and Scott finished with 12 points for the Eagles.

James led the Wildcats with 19 points.

Coleman and Stone each finished the game with 15 points.