The Cornersville Middle School Lady Bulldogs (5-3) handed Riverside Christian Academy just their second loss of the season on Thursday night by defeating the Lady Knights 50-31 in Fayetteville behind a stellar all-around performance by center Morgan Terry.

Cornersville held a 20-17 lead at the break, before putting their foot on the gas at the start of the second half and outscoring the Lady Knights 30-15 over the final two quarters to pull away for the 18-point victory.

"In the first half, we were trying to get everyone some playing time, but in the second half we wanted to come out and score some points and extend the lead," said CMS coach Peyton Newton. "I was very happy with everyone. When you score 50 points while playing everyone, you've done a good job."

Stats leaders

Aided by their strong second half effort, Cornersville finished with a 18-9 advantage in field goals and held a 2-1 edge in three-pointers. The Lady Bulldogs also controlled the boards and outrebounded RCA 50-24, which included a 20-8 advantage on the offensive glass.

Terry dominated the paint on both ends of the court and led Cornersville with 18 points, 22 rebounds, five assists, four blocked shots, and two steals.

"Morgan had a big game. We tried her at point guard in our last game and I didn't like how that experiment turned out," said Newton. "We put her back down on the post and I told our guards to get her the ball. She probably played her best game of the season."

Emma Mitchell followed Terry with 11 points and Gabriel King tallied four points. Sara Beth Prosser, Hannah Singleton, and Kendall Garrell chipped in three points apiece as well, while Taylor Powers, Melody Parker, and Mikaela King each notched two points. Sierra Kinder and Kiely Rindinger rounded out the scoring for CMS with one point each.

High scorer

Point guard Emma Campbell carried the entire offensive load for the Lady Knights and poured in a game high 30 points, but made just 9-of-34 shots. Ellie Hammons and Lillie Clements also had one point apiece for RCA.

Cornersville inched out to a 6-2 lead in the first quarter thanks to baskets from Terry, Powers, and Mitchell before the Lady Knights tallied the first four points of the second period to tie the game at 6-6.

After the Lady Bulldogs outscored RCA 6-2 over the next 1:15 on the strength of two baskets from King and a Terry layup to grab a 12-8 advantage, the Lady Knights went on a 7-2 run to pull ahead 15-14 late in the second quarter.

RCA's lead proved to be short lived, as Mitchell sandwiched two free throws and an offensive put back around a Terry basket to give CMS a 20-15 advantage with :27 left in the half.

Big run

Campbell hit a jumper in the waning moments of the half to close the gap to 20-17, but the Lady Bulldogs broke the game open by staring the third quarter with a 14-1 run behind eight points from Terry and a pair of treys from Singleton and Mitchell to forge a 34-18 lead with 1:55 left in the stanza.

The Lady Knights notched five of the next seven points to trim the deficit to 36-23 at the end of the third period before Cornersville outscored RCA 14-9 in the fourth quarter with the help of four points from Terry and three points apiece from Garrell and Prosser to wrap up their 50-32 victory.