The Pike County Lady Bulldogs held tough Tuesday evening but the bigger Class 4A Bullock County Hornets were too strong, beating the Bulldogs 56-32.

Going up against a Class 4A team was hard enough for head coach Todd Reynolds, but throw in the fact that the Hornets have played six games compared to zero for the Bulldogs heading in made it a steep climb for the Bulldogs.

In the end this game was nothing more than a teaching tool for the young Bulldogs basketball team.

“This is all about our youth and their first game,” Reynolds said. “We are talking about a team that has already played six or seven ballgames. They had all the advantages. We didn’t give up. We fought until the very end. When we learn to do some things a little better it’s a whole different story.”

The Bulldogs struggled out of the gates in the early stages of the game. The Hornets defense suffocated the Bulldogs with their full court defense, forcing numerous turnovers putting the Bulldogs in a whole.

The Bulldogs entered the second quarter trailing the Hornets 15-5. The Bulldogs were able to hang around in the second quarter behind the play of Shaquvia McKinney who scored 8 of her team high 12 points. Between the play of McKinney and Demetris Gilbert who finished with 8 points the Bulldogs were able to stay within shouting distance heading into the third quarter.

The Bulldogs looked to finish the first half on a high note to give them some momentum heading into the second half. Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, turnovers helped the Hornets go on an 11-0 to end the half and to begin the third quarter to put the game out of reach of the Bulldogs.

Reynolds hopes to see a little more consistency out of those two and the whole team if they hope to compete in a tough area in 2015.

“We have to have some consistency,” Reynolds said. “They have some old demons to get rid off and it’s just going to take some time.”

The Bulldogs were outscored in the second half 22-15 handing them their first loss of the year in their opening game.

Even with the loss coach Reynolds saw a lot of things him and his team could be proud of moving forward into the season.

“I had some players step up tonight when they really needed to,” Reynolds said. “They are going to get better but it’s a process.

It’s not going to get any easier for the Bulldogs, they will now spend the next couple days preparing for the Goshen Christmas tournament that is set to get under way later this week.

“We need to rotate the ball better on offense,” Reynolds said. “We need to do that especially against in the press. We worked on that during practice we just didn’t do it.”

The Bulldogs will play G.W. Long on Friday with tip off still to be announced.