“I just want to say that the help and support we got from the community, parents, teachers, administration and all was just phenomenal,” said Brantley High School varsity boys coach Andre Parks.

“They were a big reason we were able to put on a tournament.”

In a recent Christmas Tournament hosted by the Brantley Bulldogs, teams from Brantley, Luverne, Highland Home, Linden, Goshen, Pleasant Home, Elba and Greenville gathered in the gyms of BHS to face off.

In the first round of the tournament, the BHS Lady Bulldogs took on Elba and walked away with a victory. In rounds two and three, the Lady Bulldogs took on Pleasant Home and Greenville, falling to both.

“I thought overall we did okay. We were a little sluggish on Saturday, and in the second game against Greenville I thought we got a little tired,” said BHS varsity girls coach Roland Jones.

“But that’s to be expected when you’re playing three games in one day. As a whole, I think we got better and improved. Playing better competition is only going to make us better.”

The next game for the Lady Bulldogs will take place on Jan. 3 against the Georgiana Panthers.

In the mean time, the Lady Bulldogs will take this week to rest and recuperate, and next week they will hit the court again ready for practice.

“We just have to improve on being aggressive and taking shots,” Jones said.

“Our next game is against Georgiana, and that’s a big area contest. They beat us last year in overtime, and they beat us by one point the second time we played them. We just have to figure out a way to get a win this year.”

In the first round of the boys’ tournament, the Bulldogs faced off against Linden, falling 66-59. Next they faced Pleasant Home and once again fell 66-63. In the third and final round, the Bulldogs fell 55-46 to Luverne.

“From a court standpoint, I felt like we went backwards in a few areas,” Parks said.

BHS sophomore Parker Driggers led the team with points in both the Linden and Pleasant Home games, scoring 25 of the 63 points earned against Pleasant Home.

“Parker’s a really tough kid, and he’s giving us what we want right now. He’s leading us in scoring. Right now, we’re not as tough as we need to be in order to play basketball and win the close games,” Parks said.

Parks did note that although the Bulldogs suffered these losses, the bright side was the return of their previously injured player Jake Kilcrease. Kilcrease finished the Luverne game with 14 points.

“It was good to have him back; he’s been injured all year. That game was probably the game he played the most minutes in,” Parks said.

“I think having him back will definitely help us in the second half of the season.”

The Bulldogs will rest up and prepare to take on the Georgiana Panthers on Jan. 3.

The Brantley Bulldogs would like to thank The Chicken Shack of Luverne, Bush’s BBQ and Pepsi-Cola Bottling Co. for their help in sponsoring the tournament.