Trojans trounce Bulldogs

The Cornersville Bulldogs (0-3) remain starved for a win, as they head into the Thanksgiving break with a 62-35 road loss at the hands of the Collinwood Trojans (3-0) on Tuesday night.

After jumping out to a 21-point lead in the second quarter, the Trojans held a 39-22 advantage at the break before outscoring Cornersville 23-13 in the second half to cruise to their third victory of the season.

The young Bulldogs had trouble breaking Collinwood's full court press and finished with only 13 field goals on 35 percent shooting while the Trojans recorded 22 steals and forced 28 Cornersville turnovers.

Although they scored a number of layups off of Bulldog miscues, Collinwood shot only 27 percent from the field (22-of-81), which included a 5-of-43 effort from three-point range, but committed only nine turnovers and held a staggering 30-5 edge on the offensive glass en route to out rebounding Cornersville 48-27 overall.

"Their best offense was our offense because we gave them a lot of layups off of turnovers," said Bulldog coach Adrian Wilson. "Defensively we're not that far off from where we need to be. We forced them to shoot the shots we wanted them to take, but we gave up too many offensive rebounds and gave them second and third opportunities."

Mike Lovett led Cornersville with 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting to go along with 10 rebounds and five blocked shots, while Hayden McMahon and Tyler Lowry each added five points and pulled down seven and four rebounds respectively. Brian Lowe also chipped in three points for the Bulldogs, and Stone Riner, Zach Shaddy, and Jody Sullivan each had two points.

Jacob Daniel paced the Trojans with 12 points, while Logan Montgomery, Jacob Davis, Ethan Butler, and Hunter Crews tallied 10, nine, eight, and seven points respectively.

The Bulldogs fell into a huge hole early on, as Collinwood raced out to a 24-4 lead late in the first quarter on the strength of ten points apiece from Montgomery and Daniel.

After Lowe knocked down a three from the left corner to trim the deficit to 24-7 with 1:23 left in the first period, the Trojans tallied the next four points to open up a 28-7 advantage early in the second.

Cornersville finally appeared to gain their bearings and put together a 13-4 run behind eight points from Lovett and a McMahon trey to narrow the gap to 32-20 late in the second quarter.

The Trojans, though, halted the Bulldogs momentum by ending the half with a 7-2 spurt to take a 39-22 lead into the break before notching the first five points of the third period to forge a 44-22 advantage.

Cornersville trimmed the deficit to 44-26 midway through the third quarter on a layup by Lovett and a McMahon jumper, but would pull no closer the rest of the way, as Collinwood outscored the Bulldogs 18-9 over the final 12:30 to complete their 62-35 triumph.