Florala is still trudging away this season and with another area game Friday night, they are hoping to get to chalk a second win on the board.

The Wildcats (1-12, 1-2 in Class 1A, Area 3) faced McKenzie Tuesday night and lost, 65-52.

“We got beat by 13 and we were down by 24 at one point in time and actually came back a little bit,” Florala coach Brad Garner said of the game. “It was the same old scenario, missed shots and turnovers.

“It sounds like good scoring, but we only had three other guys that scored and two of them were two apiece,” he said. “We had three, but we just didn’t get any other points from people.”

Garner added the main problem Tuesday night took place on the offensive side of the ball.

“Their speed became such a huge factor and I think our biggest problem offensively, everything stemmed from that was not handling the ball strong and not creating shots for ourselves,” he said. “And having to take shots from people in the base. When you don’t make many for them and it seems like we made a lot, but 52 points is not bad.

“It was 51-29 at the end of the third, so our hole was already dug so to speak before we ever got there,” he said. “We were able to score some point in the first quarter, but they got a lot of fast break opportunities ad we’re not gong to defend McKenzie real well in those situations as fast as they are.”

Leading scorers were Dustin Hinson with 20 points, Zack Fleming and Eric Bess had 10 points apiece.

On the game Friday night against Kinston, Garner said his team can’t think they can win again based on their past game.

“Kinston is the win we have this year,” Garner said. “They’re obviously a pretty good basketball team. We can’t think that we’ve beaten them one time and that we can again. They’re going to shoot it well and they’re going to shoot it a lot better at their gym than they did over here.”

Garner said despite the state of his team right now, Florala is still working on getting better.

“We’re close to being able to beat those teams and being able to win a couple back to back,” he said. “We’re just not there yet. We keep working on it and I think athletically we match up better with Kinston than we do with McKenzie.

“I’ve seen Kinston more than just when we played them,” he said. “I know they can shoot the ball well and we’re going to have to get out and defend them on that.”

Tip off Friday night in Kinston is at 4:30 p.m. with the B-team.