BELGREEN — The county rivalry between the Belgreen Bulldogs and Phil Campbell Bobcats has always been an intense one, and Friday night’s contest proved to be no different.

Belgreen was only defeated by a handful of teams during the 2011-12 season, and Phil Campbell was the first on that short list.

Friday night’s installment would not prove to be as close as some of last year’s matches, as the Bulldogs defeated the Bobcats 65-39.

“This win was probably due to a combination of things,” Belgreen head coach Greg Watson said. “We shot the ball well, we were aggressive on defense and we were more aggressive on offense.”

The game went back and forth in the early minutes, and the Bulldogs took a small lead into halftime.

The Bulldogs were ahead 25-16 at the start of the third quarter. Belgreen outscored Phil Campbell 20-11 in the third, putting the gap at 45-27 going into the fourth quarter.

Belgreen finished out the game strong, and Phil Campbell was unable to get enough offense going to make a comeback.

The Bulldogs ended up with a 16-point victory over their county opponents when the last second ticked off the board.

“They looked tired after having to play against Hamilton last night,” Watson said. “They played really well tonight, and we haven’t seen Phil Campbell’s best game yet this season.”

Chase Landers was the leading scorer for Belgreen on the night with 27.

Dustin Smith added 11 points and Josh DeVaney contributed 7.

Also scoring for the Bulldogs were: Jared Mitchell (6), Dakotah Leverett (4), Brock Hester (4), Hugo Castillo (3) and Nick Miller (3).

Cameron Harris topped the Bobcats scoring on the night with 15 points.

Also scoring for Phil Campbell were: Skeeter Benford (8), Colton Vickery (8), Nathan Duncan (3), Brady Whitten (2), Craig Saint (2) and Austin Jones (1).

Belgreen did not fair quite so well in the girls varsity game played earlier in the night.

Despite defeating the Phillips Lady She-Bears earlier in the week, the Lady Bulldogs’ slump seemed to continue with a 50-36 loss to the Lady Bobcats.

Phil Campbell was ahead for the majority of the game, and while Belgreen was never completely out of the contest, the Lady Bobcats’ 14-point victory is indicative of the gap that existed for most of the match.

“We hit some shots tonight and we rebounded better than we have,” Phil Campbell head coach Darit Riddle said.

“Our defense is getting better. It always feels good to beat Belgreen since they’re a county rival. They’re a little down this year, but a win’s a win.”

“Phil Campbell has a good team,” Belgreen head coach Richie Hester said.

“We didn’t play well tonight. We’re still playing in spurts, but we’re still playing as a team. We’ve got to bounce back, and we have two area games next week. We’ll bounce back.”