PLANTERSVILLE — For the first time in 360 days, Dallas County head coach Willie Moore had to address his basketball team following a loss.

The Hornets lost on the road to Sumter Central 61-40 Tuesday night, their first defeat since Dec. 21, 2013 against Wilcox Central on a neutral floor. The streak lasted for 24 games and included winning last year’s class 4A state basketball championship.

“Sitting back looking at it, it’s been done before and somebody else will do it again,” Moore said. “We’ve just been fortunate.”

The streak spanned between two different seasons and included some close calls. Dallas County won overtime games in last year’s state semifinal game against Madison County and in the title game against J.O. Johnson.

“To do it with two different teams from the same school is neat,” Moore said. “Of course, our team [this year] is different.”

The Hornets had already survived four close games this season, but their luck ran out Tuesday. The loss drops Dallas County to 6-1 on the season and 1-1 in area play, meaning the Hornets have a lot of work to do if they hope to host the class 5, area 6 tournament later this season.  Moore said his team has been squeaking by in many games this season without playing its best, and it caught up to them Tuesday.

“I’ve been saying for three weeks that this team needed to lose, because we were sort of getting by without being mentally focused on our scouting report and our fundamentals,” Moore said.

He estimated that his previous longest win streak was during his tenure at Bibb County in 2001, when the Choctaws won somewhere around 20 consecutive games.

Other streaks still remain. The Hornets have not lost at home since the 2012-2013 season and have only lost two home games in the last four or five years, Moore said.

The streak was going to end at some point, but Moore wasn’t happy with how it came to an end. He felt his team lacked effort Tuesday and has shown a sense of entitlement at times.

“I felt like going into the game, our kids thought we were going to win but we didn’t go down there expecting to win,” Moore said. “We wanted to win, but we didn’t expect to win.”

Moore hoped his team would handle last year’s success well. So far, it hasn’t.

“We’ve just not handled last year’s success as well as I thought we would have,” Moore said.

Dallas County will host Booker T. Washington Friday before taking part in the county tournament at Wallace Community College Selma Monday and Tuesday.