Andalusia’s Nico Johnson and O’Brien Curry help lead their team to a Class 4A, Area 3 championship win Monday night in Andalusia, defeating Clarke County, 73-71.

Johnson put up 27 points while Curry added 19 during the game.

The Bulldogs (23-2) were trailing early in the first quarter 11-6, which motivated the team to take their first lead of the game with 1:35 left in that quarter.

By halftime, Andalusia had added an additional 13 points compared to Clarke County’s 15 to give the Bulldogs a 29-28 lead going into the third.

Andalusia coach Richard Robertson said, despite the win, there still is work that needs to be accomplished.

“It’s the same thing almost every game,” Robertson said. “We’re still trying to beat ourselves. We worked like the devil to succeed and we made mental mistakes and stuff and kept the opponent in the game.

“We’re overcoming ourselves and the opponent and that’s not what you’re supposed to do,” he said. “That’s my responsibility and I’m going to do something about it.”

Andalusia hosts UMS-Wright this Friday night in the sub-regional tournament and Robertson said his team will get to work straight away.

“We’re going to treat (today) as Wednesday and we’re going to work on Andalusia, which is fundamentals,” he said. “I’m going to get a tape and scout report on who we’re playing and then we’re going to come in and formulate a game plan.”

Going into the third quarter, the Bulldogs trailed early until the 4:44 mark, where they went up by two points.

That would give Andalusia the needed momentum to finish out the quarter four points over Clarke County, 50-46.

Robertson said there is still some “teaching” left to do to get the team ready for Friday.

“I’m going to go back and teach scoring and situation,” Robertson said. “At this stage our freshmen are sophomores, our sophomores are juniors and our seniors are one loss away from their high school career being over. If you don’t know now, then when are we going to learn?”

Robertson said hosting the game Friday night has been a goal since the beginning of the season.

“I’m proud to be at home, but it was planned this way all the time,” he said. “We’ve achieved two goals this year. “We’ve won the Christmas tournament and we won the area home court and then the area championship,” he said. “But, it doesn’t mean a thing on what we’ve done all year if you lose. I’ve been a ‘bridesmaid’ a bunch of times in my coaching career.”

The leading scorer for Clarke County was TaMichael Burroughs with 23 points.

Robertson added his team has achieved what they are in the “business for.”

“We’re a school of excellence, tradition, that’s what we’ve got on the wall,” Robertson said. “We’ve got to defend our turf, that’s our court in there.”

Andalusia will host a sub-regional against UMS-Wright on Friday night. Tip off is at 7 p.m.

Thomasville girls 60

Andalusia girls 56 (OT)

In earlier action Monday night, the Lady Bulldogs lost in overtime to Thomasville, 60-56.

Thomasville’s Ray Bettis put up a 3-pointer at the buzzer to tie the game up at 51 apiece and send it into extra time.

“We had a lot of subs in; we were just trying to keep it close,” Thomasville coach Curtis Lane said on the play in overtime. “We just figured that if we can keep the game close and play good defense and rebound that we had a chance to win it. We made some shots late in overtime that were easy baskets.”

The Lady Bulldogs kept it close going into the third quarter, going up four points, and then holding on to the lead heading into the fourth.

Andalusia coach Bennie Shellhouse said, despite the loss, his girls played well.

“It’s hard to beat a team three times in a row,” Shellhouse said. “I thought we played well and had a starter go down with a knee injury, but we fought back.

“Fouls hurt us a little bit and we got a couple of our guards in foul trouble and couldn’t score in the end,” he said. “We just didn’t have the right personnel on the floor at the time to make a move.”

The leading scorers for Andalusia were Amber Anderson with 18 points and Alexis Horton with 12.

For Thomasville, Kyrea Rowe had 15 points and Shelby Crawford added 10.

The Lady Bulldogs will travel to Mobile to play UMS-Wright on Thursday night. Tip off is at 7 p.m.