By TREY HICKMAN/For the Reporter

WEST BLOCTON — The trio Tae’ Smith, Undreaz Lilly and Bobby Anderson turned in standout nights on the hardwood as the Montevallo varsity boys’ basketball team trumped host West Blocton 53-41.

Smith led the way with eight points, 11 rebounds and seven steals while Lilly put up 12 points and six steals. Anderson posted a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds as the Bulldogs followed a heartbreaking loss at the hands of Calera on Tuesday with the 12-point victory.

“Our biggest focus tonight was to shoot (from) the free-throw line a whole lot better than what we’ve been shooting,” said Montevallo head coach Greg Dickinson, whose squad went 15-of-26 in that area. “We’ve been missing anywhere from 20 to 30 free throws a game and it’s been hurting us so our whole focus this week was to just make free throws, execute on our defensive end, and we did that. Free throws were a whole lot better tonight than we shot all year.”

West Blocton’s Omar Martin kicked off the game’s scoring with a layup, though that proved the only lead the Tigers would enjoy. Montevallo dominated the remainder of the first quarter courtesy of an 11-0 run paced by four points from Lilly. The Bulldogs increased their advantage by one point with each passing period and ultimately upped their record to 3-6.

Montevallo’s A.J. Green had seven points and six rebounds and Da’Jion Young added seven points of his own in the winning effort.

For West Blocton, Kalon Kelser contributed 14 points, followed by Juwan Lundy, Omar Martin and Jordan Snelson, who each rang up five points as the Tigers fell to 1-10.

“My thing tonight was to make sure all our guys got some (reps) because we have to have some of those guys who don’t get much playing time (get some reps) so when the area (games) time comes in they’ll have a little bit more experience,” Dickinson said. “So tonight wasn’t about trying to win big. It was about getting everybody some reps and working on our system.”