The Pike County Lady Bulldogs overcame a nine point deficit on Tuesday night and defeated the Elba Tigers 49-45.

The win for the Tigers improves their record to 4-15.

“They could have easily given up after falling behind by nine,” said Bulldogs head coach Todd Reynolds. “That has been a challenge for us the past two years. They made a decision to not give up and they fought their way back.”

With less then three minutes to go A’Kalysia Rodgers connected on two three-pointers to get the Bulldogs to within one point. Keeyah Rodgers connected on seven of her 11 free throws in the final three minutes to give the Bulldogs lead and the win.

In all the Bulldogs outscored the Tigers 20-10 in the fourth quarter.

“That is what we are looking for,” Reynolds said. “Our goal is to be competitive and find an edge and a little fight. This kind of win is exactly what the doctor ordered.”

In the early stages of the game the Bulldogs struggled with the pressure of the Tigers.  The Bulldogs were able to overcome the pressure late in the game.

“They had a soft press on us at the beginning of the game and we were beating it,” Reynolds said. “They picked up their pressure and I had a girl out with a muscle strain. When they made the adjustment on the press it exposed our seventh-grader. We moved Precious (Vaznaian) over and that negated a lot of the pressure.”

Vaznaian led the Bulldogs with 19 points, while Keeyah Rodgers scored 16.

The Bulldogs will host Headland on Friday night beginning at 5:30 p.m.