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The Andalusia High School Bulldogs fell to Paxton HIgh School Bobcats last night in the first round of the Florala HIgh School Christmas Tournament 55-43.

At the end of the first period, the Bobcats led 12-9.

Elijah McClain had two points in the first period, Chance Russell had five points and Mike Hourel had two points.

At the end of the half, Andalusia was in the lead 23-21 with buckets from Omare Latimer, McClain Isaiah Brundidge, Patrick McCorvey and Hourel.

McClain opened the second half with a layup to go up 25-21, but PHS answered with a three-pointer to make it 25-24.

Paxton took the lead with 5:50 left in the third period with a layup to make it 26-25.

McCorvey then hit a layup to take back the lead 27-26, and then Jake Wilson had a steal and layup to go up 29-26, but PHS answered to make it a one-point game again at 29-28.

PHS took the lead again with 3:25 left in the third period making it 30-29 and then made two baskets to go up 34-29.

With 28 seconds in the third period, PHS got an and-one foul and finished the third period up 37-25.

PHS opened the fourth period, but McClain answered and got an and-one foul making it 39-31.

PHS had a hot streak and scored eight points to stretch their lead to 47-32 until McClain had another and one with 4:54 left in the game making it 47-35.

With 2:53 left in the game, McClain scored again to make it 47-39, but PHS answered twice to go up 51-39.

With 1:41 left in the game, Latimer scored again to make it 51-41, but at the end of the fourth quarter, PHS scored two more baskets to finish the game 55-41.

“Tonight they just looked like a better team than us,” AHS head coach Brad Goldman said. “They were better coached, I don’t know what else to say. There’s no good excuse for it. They played better than us tonight and we just have to work to get better. There’s going to be good competition every night of this tournament. We play Georgiana tomorrow and they beat us last week. So, we’ll see if we can rebound and play better tomorrow than we did today.”

With the loss, the Bulldogs fall to 6-4 on the season.

They play Georgiana High School at 2 p.m., in the Florala High School Christmas Tournament.

McClain led the scoring effort for the Bulldogs last night with 17 points.

Latimer followed McClain with seven points.

Other scores from the night were: