Eufaula edges Andalusia in battle of unbeatens

OZARK — In perhaps the most anticipated first-round game of the tournament, Eufaula won the battle of the boards and held off Andalusia 70-64.

The game, featuring two undefeated teams, lived up to its billing. Eufaula’s ability to turn rebounds into fast breaks enabled the Tigers to improve to 14-0.

Andalusia, now 12-1, never stopped competing. The Bulldogs cut an 11-point deficit with 1:15 remaining to six points with 30 seconds to play.
 
By the time it was over, Eufaula coach Mike Henry was wringing wet, his shirt hanging out of his suit pants. But he was smiling.

“When you play (Andalusia coach) Richard Robertson and what he stands for ...” Henry said. “You saw how hard they played. They never quit. It was an honor to play in this game.”

Robertson was disappointed his team had too many turnovers and too few rebounds to beat the experienced Tigers.

“We self-destructed,” Robertson said after the game. “Really, we self-destructed all night.”

He didn’t want to hear compliments that his team played hard even when it fell far behind.

“That’s what you’re supposed to do,” he said. “We came down here to win. We didn’t come down here to get close.”

But facing a senior-dominated Eufaula team, close was as much as the Bulldogs could get.

Calvin Thomas led Eufaula with 22 points. Herbert Brooks added 16, Lazabian Jackson had 13 and Josh Jones scored nine points for the Tigers.

The challenge came on the other end of the floor. Andalusia’s Nico Johnson — a 6-foot-3 Alabama commitment for football —  is an inside force.

“We tried to contain Nico,” Henry said. “That was our big key. I gave Josh Jones a hard time about guarding the big man all day. He and Hans Rice did a good job.”

Johnson led Andalusia with 18 points. All but 16 came in the second half and 10 came in the fourth quarter. Brandon Sims scored 14 points, Leslie James added 10 and O’Brien Curry had nine for the Bulldogs.

Both teams put on a show in the first half. Sims intercepted a pass and went coast-to-coast to cap an 8-0 run and give Andalusia an 8-5 lead.

Brooks answered with a 3-pointer and Thomas had a three-point play to put the Tigers back out front 11-8.

“Both teams were into the game,” Henry said. “After a bunch of lead changes, we played well late in the second quarter and took a lead into halftime. I thought that was a big stretch.”

Quayshaun Denson hit a jumper for Andalusia that pulled the Bulldogs to 20-19 early in the second. Eufaula went on a 10-3 run when Shaquel Ledbetter intercepted a pass and scored with about 2:30 left in the half.

Andalusia stormed back within 30-28 on another Denson basket. But the Tigers took advantage of a couple Andalusia turnovers in the final minute of the half and took a 34-28 lead into the locker room.

Baskets by Jones and Jackson in the first minute of the third quarter gave Eufaula a 38-28 lead.

From that point, the Tigers kept an eight- to 12-point margin until the final minute of the game.

Andalusia couldn’t put together a sustained run at Eufaula because the bigger, more physical Tigers kept running the fast break as the Bulldogs had no choice but to crash the boards.