Stories from Sunday, December 18, 2016

The Cornersville Lady Bulldogs had a chance to gain its first signature win of the young season with a trip to its namesake's home court at Columbia Academy on Tuesday night after winning its last three games against opponents with a combined 6-13 record. And for the first time in four tries dating back to the 2014-15 season, Cornersville (4-3, 3-0) came away with a win over longtime rival Columbia Academy (2-5, 1-1) by a 56-52 score.

In 2014-2015, The Forrest Rocket wrestling team won the Region 3A/AA Individual Tournament and sent six grapplers to the TSSAA Class A/AA State Tournament with three earning medalist spots. Dylan Pendley, making his third trip to the state tournament, finished in second place in the 113-pound weight class, Jeffery Gross finished second in the 106-pound weight class as a freshman and Nic McGuiggan finished in fifth place as a senior in the 220-pound division.

The FMS Rockets were playing their best ball of the year coming into the second round of the Duck River Valley Conference Tournament at Middle Tennessee Christian School Wednesday night, but a poor shooting performance on the Rockets' part was magnified by the hot-handed Cougars, who knocked off Chapel Hill 46-23. The last time the two teams met at Forrest, they played to a 2-2 first quarter tie and it was much of the same on Wednesday as the number six-seeded Rockets and third-seeded Cougars split 12 points evenly.

There was a time during the mid to late 2000's that Cornersville held the upper hand in the series against Columbia Academy, winning five of six regular season games from 2006-09 but since a district tournament loss in 2009 the Bulldogs from Columbia have won every game since then by a large margin. But Cornersville, riding its first two-game winning streak since the 2013-14 season, came into Tuesday night's contest fresh off a 54-point thumping of Santa Fe and held high hopes of finally breaking the eight-year Columbia Academy reign.