The Pike County Bulldogs survived an early deficit and stormed back to defeat the Bullock County Yellow Jackets 37-31 on Thursday.

The Bulldogs improve to 3-1.

“I was very proud of our rotation tonight,” said Bulldogs coach Doug Holland. “We only have nine players, and I feel like they can all give you something on any given night. We are still young. We have played only four games and we are still learning, but I am proud of them for gutting it out.”

The Bulldogs and Yellow Jackets played a tight, low scoring first half and both teams combined to score only 26 points.

The Yellow Jackets jumped out to a quick 9-1 lead before the Bulldogs scored 12 out of the next 16 points and went into the locker at halftime tied with Bullock County 13-13.

“We have a tendency to start slow,” Holland said. “We were really never worried once we made our adjustments. Our players responded. It was nothing new, starting slow.”

The Bulldogs outscored Bullock County 13-9 in the third quarter and took a 26-22 lead into the fourth quarter.

Eight different Bulldogs scored on Thursday.

“We knew it was going to take all nine of us,” Holland said. “They did a great job off the bench. Each one of them contributed tonight.”

Jahzarian Lampley led the way for the Bulldogs with seven points.

The Lady Bulldogs began the night for Pike County with a 35-28 loss to the Hornets.

“We did some good things,” said Lady Bulldog’s head coach Todd Reynolds. “We had a good third quarter. We gave them a game plan, but since they are not used to playing with pressure and they didn’t execute. That gave them a big enough stretch to pull out the win.”

The Bulldogs were outscored 12-2 in the second quarter and trailed 18-8 at halftime.

“We had some key players that are still not responding. It’s growing pains,” Reynolds said.

The Bulldogs came out in the second half and crawled back in the game, outscoring the Hornets 13-6. After entering the fourth quarter trailing by just three points, the Bulldogs surrendered a 9-0 run to allow the Yellow Jackets to stretch their lead to double digits.

Keeyah Rodgers led the way for the Bulldogs with eight points, while Precious Vaznaian finished with seven.

The Bulldogs will be back in action on December 20 when they host Ashford.