The third time was definitely a charm for the Luverne Tigers Thursday night in Brundidge. The Tigers took out Pike County 57-53 in a barnburner.

The final Thursday was nearly identical to the second meeting of the two teams in the Luverne Invitational Tournament back in December. Pike County walked out of Luverne’s gym with a 57-54 victory and the first place trophy, but Luverne found their revenge Thursday night.

“I have been following Luverne since we played them,” PCHS head coach Doug Holland said. “They are a much improved team and they match up well with us in the starting five and off the bench. I knew they had gotten better, but we did not play well as a team tonight.”

The Bulldogs trailed 16-11 after the first quarter and trailed 24-22 at halftime, which was how much they led by at the half of the Invitational tournament championship game.

“We played uncharacteristically tonight,” Holland said. “We did not play our brand of basketball. We came out flat and I was disappointed in how the guys responded to that. We have been preaching that we need to play well even when we are not shooting the ball well, but we did not do that tonight.”

Holland said the Bulldogs did not play well as a team Thursday night, but he told them to keep their heads up in the locker room after the game.

“I hope we can learn something from tonight’s game and move on from it,” he said.

Quay Bailey led the Bulldogs in the loss with a triple-double. Bailey recorded 11 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. Tevin Andrews chipped in a double-double with 14 points, 10 rebounds and four assists. Martellis Foster and Deandre Mathis each had six points, Geralond Knox had five points and Kendrick Foster and Jarrod Wilson each contributed four points.

The Lady Bulldogs lost 45-19 and the B team did not play Thursday.

(Editor’s note: In the Jan. 28 edition of The Messenger, incorrect information was given to The Messenger about the 2009 area championship. It was stated that this was PCHS’ first area title since 1998, but the Bulldogs were in a three way tie for the area championship last year.)