By Brannon King

For the FCT

The Phil Campbell Bobcats struggled on offense and the Shoals Christian Flame made them pay winning 55-39 in the boys’ game played Friday night at Northwest-Shoals Community College in Phil Campbell.

“Offensively, we’ve got to do a better job of taking advantage of opportunities we get when we are close to the basket,” Phil Campbell head coach Russ O’Rear said after the game.

Shoals Christian found things a bit easier inside as they picked up the victory without making any three-pointers in the game.

The Flame led 27-19 at the half and outscored the Bobcats 22-13 in the final quarter to get the win.

Phil Campbell was led in scoring by Colton Vickery with 14 points. He was followed by Bailey Motes (10), Nathan Duncan (8), Noah Williams (3), Tommy Reed (3) and Skylar Tackitt (1).

Matthew Russ of Shoals Christian led all scorers with 20 points. Daniel Wood also scored in double figures for the Flame with 15 points.

“We did not play well offensively at all,” O’Rear said. “I thought defensively, we did a pretty good job. We rebounded better in the second half. We held them in the mid-fifties and that’s pretty good since Shoals is a pretty solid team. We just have to do a better job on the offensive end.”