On Tuesday night, the Cornersville Middle School Bulldogs notched their first win of the season when they defeated the Minor Hill Wildcats 35-18 in the first round of the Cornersville Athletic Booster Club tournament.

The Bulldogs (1-2) broke the game open early and built a 22-7 lead in the first half before outscoring Minor Hill 13-11 over the final two quarters to advance to the semifinals of the tournament.

Good feeling

"It feels good to get a win. The starters set the tone. I told them that we needed to get a lead and knock them out early," said CMS coach Gerard Randolph.

Bolstered by a 6-of-10 shooting performance from forward Kolbe McMahon, Cornersville finished with a 16-8 advantage in field goals and held a 1-0 edge in three-pointers.

"I want to get the ball inside and work inside out. I want our post players to be involved and I was happy that we ran our offense and got them the ball," said Randolph.

The Bulldogs also dominated the boards and outrebounded Minor Hill 29-11, which included a 20-1 advantage on the offensive glass.

Pressure's on

CMS gave the Wildcats (0-1) fits with their full court press as well and recorded 21 steals en route to forcing 29 Wildcat turnovers.

"We forced some turnovers with our press and got some easy baskets off of them so that really helped," said Randolph.

McMahon impacted the game on both ends of the floor and led the Bulldogs with 13 points, seven rebounds, and seven steals. Darien Bush followed McMahon with 10 points and six rebounds, while Caleb Crowell and Brock Powers added four points apiece. C.J. Coble also chipped in two points for Cornersville, and Cody Umbles and Eli Woodard both had one point.

Jordan Cook paced the Wildcats with seven points, while Christopher Tolbert tallied four points. Lucas Johnson and Jeremiah Dudley notched two points apiece as well for Minor Hill, and Reece Norwood had one point.

Speedy start

The Bulldogs came flying out of the gate and forged an 11-1 lead with 1:43 left in the first quarter on the strength of six points from Bush and a couple of offensive put backs from McMahon and Crowell.

Tolbert hit a jumper to trim the deficit to 11-3 late in the first period, but Cornersville responded with a 6-0 spurt behind four points from McMahon and a Bush layup to open up a 17-3 advantage early in the second quarter.

After Cook sandwiched a pair of baskets around a layup by Crowell to narrow the gap to 19-7, the Bulldogs tallied the last three points of the half on a turnaround bank shot by Coble and a Woodward free throw to push their lead to 22-7.

Cook converted a three-point play early in the third quarter to cut the deficit to 22-10, before CMS put together a 9-2 run with the help of seven points from McMahon and a Bush layup to stretch their lead to 31-12 at the end of the stanza.

The Wildcats then outscored Cornersville 6-4 in the fourth period for the 35-18 final.