DAPHNE, Alabama — The Lady Admirals of Bayside Academy suffered their first area loss of the season 36-32 to Clarke County High Friday night in Daphne.

The Bayside girls fell behind 9-0 in the opening period but battled back to trail 22-18 at the half, 29-27 after three quarters and eventually took the lead 32-31 with 1:44 left in the game. But the Lady Bulldogs then hit 5-of-6 free throws while the Admirals aim went cold. All seven CCHS points in the final period came from the line.

“I think the turning point in the game is when we settled down in the second quarter and cut the lead to four going into half time and realized that we can play with this team,” Bayside head coach Brittany Davidson said. “We cut their lead to two points going into the fourth (quarter) and held them scoreless from the field in the fourth quarter. Their only points came from the foul line in the fourth.”

In the second half, the Admirals had good looks and quality shots but most rimmed out as if the ball needed perfect centering to fall in.

“I thought the game as a whole we played about as hard as we could play,” she added. “We had the defensive effort needed to win this game and the shots were there, they just were not falling for us.”

CCHS just missed enough votes to break into the top 10 last week and remained undefeated in 3A Area 1 play while the league loss was the first for Bayside who slipped to 4-1 and 8-8 overall. CCHS improved to 13-3 overall, 4-0 with the win.

Davidson was pleased with the effort and attitude her team showed against a top-tier program, one they will get another crack at on the road and in the area tournament.

“I was so proud of my girls,” she said. “Clarke County is a really quick basketball team. We knew that going into this game. We finally settled down and played our game and made some great plays and almost had them. They hung in there after a rough first quarter and fought back and made it a game in the second half. Jhalen Caffey had a great ball game for us. Harper Morrison, Virginia (Pittman) and Gabby (Deshotel) did a great job rebounding and blocking shots. We are still in the area race. We

have to stay focused and play one game at a time.”

Deshotel scored 12 points, including the go-ahead shot, netted 13 rebounds and blocked a pair of shots for Bayside. Pittman scored eight with six boards and had three stuffed shots. Caffey added five and Morgan Dulaney four. Morrison was effective on the boards inside at both ends. Rachel Brownlee had a game-high 13 points for the Bulldogs.

Bayside hosts Alma Bryant tonight at 6 p.m. in a rubber rematch of a 38-36 season-opening loss to the Hurricanes and a 42-37 win over Bryant in the Cottage Hill Christmas tournament.

Bayside’s remaining area schedule has them on the road at TR Miller Jan. 24 and at CCHS Jan. 27. The Admiral ladies host Miller to close out the area run Jan. 28.