Although most teams have played six or seven games, the Pike County Bulldogs kicked off their 2015-16-basketball season on Tuesday with a 58-50 loss at the hands of the Class 4A Bullock County Hornets.

Senior Deshon Cowling led the Bulldogs with 16 points. Senior Kamari Jackson had 13 points and Jahmir Lampley finished with 11.

“I really counted on us getting senior leadership this season,” said Bulldog coach Doug Holland. “We are looking for those guys to come in and to contribute a little bit more.”

The Bulldogs led at halftime and looked to have a lot of control heading into the second half. The story of the game however was Pike County’s inability to knock down important free throws and avoid untimely turnovers. The Bulldogs went just 14 of 27 from the free throw line and turned the ball over 10 times. And, the Bulldogs faced a 4A team with several wins under their belt.

“I definitely thing that them having played a lot more games than us had something to do with it, but classification didn’t matter because we always play up a class,” Holland said. “I think we were still in football mode. We shot the ball hard. I just don’t think we were in basketball shape.”

Holland wanted to schedule a tough team to start, and with 11 returning players the Hornets provided the challenge he was seeking.“We wanted to play against someone that has played a few games,” Holland said. “They are really good team this year. I think they return 11 seniors they have a really good team. The thing we can learn from it is if we can shoot free throws we will be fine.”

The Bulldogs will play in the Goshen Christmas tournament starting today. The four potential games in four days will give the Bulldogs to find their legs before heading into area play.

“Anytime you can go to a tournament and play four games in four days straight, that’s what you want to do,” Holland said. “You want to let them play to see what they look like against other teams. I am looking forward to the tournament in Goshen.”

Both the Lady Bulldogs and boys will be in action against G.W. Long starting at 5:15 p.m.