The Cornersville Middle School Bulldogs (2-2) advanced to the championship game of the Cornersville Athletic Booster Club tournament for the first time in three years by crushing the Richland Raiders 43-17 on Thursday night in the semifinals.

Cornersville led by as many as eight points in the first quarter before taking a 10-5 lead into halftime. The Bulldogs then turned the game into a laugher in the second half by outscoring the Raiders 33-12 over the final two quarters to roll to the 26-point victory.

"We played much better in the second half. At halftime, I challenged them to put this game away. We started out well, but had a terrible second quarter," said CMS coach Gerard Randolph.

Second half surge

Aided by their second half offensive surge, Cornersville finished with an 11-4 advantage in field goals, held a 5-1 edge in three-pointers, and outscored Richland 16-8 at the foul line. The Bulldogs also controlled the boards and outrebounded the Raiders 28-17, which included a 17-3 advantage on the offensive glass. Richland had trouble handling CMS' full court press as well and committed 28 turnovers in the contest, compared to just 14 miscues for the Bulldogs.

Forward Kolbe McMahon spearheaded Cornersville's second half onslaught by pouring in 15 of his season high 19 points over the last two quarters. Cody Umbles also tallied 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting, while Darien Bush and Cameron Whitaker notched three points apiece with Bush recording 10 rebounds, three assists, and three steals. Eli Woodard (two points), Colton McVey (two points), C.J. Coble (one point), and Trenton Warren (one point) rounded out the scoring for the Bulldogs with Woodard registering three assists and three steals.

Stepping it up

"Kolbe stepped it up. He played good defense and rebounded well. In the second half, he finished when he had a chance to score and that helped open the game up," said Randolph. "Cody was tremendous shooting the ball and hit some big shots for us. I was tickled to death with the way he shot the ball."

Gus McGowan paced Richland (1-5) with six points, while Hunter Inman and Trey Stacey added five points apiece.

Cornersville controlled the opening quarter of play and built a 10-2 lead through the first six minutes of play on the strength of five points from Umbles and four points from McMahon.

Richland took advantage of a CMS shooting drought in the second period and outscored the Bulldogs 3-0 in the period to narrow the gap to 10-5 at the break before tallying four of the first six points in the third quarter to whittle the deficit to 12-9.

Scoring blast

Cornersville, however, suddenly caught fire offensively and put together a 16-1 run with the help of two treys from McMahon and a Whitaker three to forge a 28-10 lead with 1:11 left in the third quarter.

Inman knocked down a trey to close the gap to 28-13 late in the third quarter, but the Bulldogs put their foot back on the Raiders' neck and rattled off 10 straight points, highlighted by a trey from Umbles and McMahon layup, to open up a 38-13 cushion early in the fourth period.

After Richland trimmed the deficit to 38-17, CMS outscored the Raiders 5-0 the rest of the way to wrap up their 43-17 triumph.