Although the Cornersville Bulldogs (0-2) played well for nearly three quarters, they were unable to finish the job against Eagleville (1-2), as CHS dropped a 53-37 decision to the Eagles at home on Monday night.

After the two teams battled to a 19-19 tie in the first half, the Bulldogs opened up a 32-29 lead late in the third quarter. Eagleville, however, caught fire offensively down the stretch and outscored Cornersville 24-5 over the final 9:25 of the contest to claim the 16-point victory.

'Hurts to lose'

"I thought we got after it for the first three quarters, but we just need to learn how to finish the game and play like that for four quarters. This was a game we could have had. It hurts to lose this one, said CHS coach Gerard Randolph.

The Eagles hit just 8-of-31 field goal attempts in the first half, but shot 61 percent (14-of-23) over the final two quarters to finish 22-of-54 from the floor overall, which included a 6-of-18 effort from three-point range. Eagleville also outrebounded the Bulldogs 35-18 and held a commanding 16-6 edge on the offensive boards.

"We ran out of gas. We stopped defending and didn't work through screens. We were waiting for someone else to do our job," said Randolph. "We let them have open looks and they did what a good team does and knocked them down."

Carson Rudd paced the Eagles with 17 points and Kodi Majors tallied 11 points. Logan Baker added eight points as well, while Alex Schofield and Austin Strickland notched five and four points respectively. Brandon Kelly, Andrew Tipton, Matthew Boyett, and Erik Hawks also scored two points apiece for Eagleville.

Bad night

Hindered by a 1-of-7 shooting performance in the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs shot just 30 percent (11-of-37) from the field overall despite knocking down 7-of-19 three-point attempts.

Tate Lowery led Cornersville with 17 points, while Brian Lowe and David Looney added seven and five points respectively. Jacob Reeves and Tyler Lowery chipped in four points apiece for the Bulldogs as well.

Cornersville got off to a strong start and jumped out to a 9-2 lead with 2:58 left in the first quarter thanks to four points from Looney, a Lowe trey, and a layup by Tate Lowery.

Eagleville tallied the next four points to cut the deficit to 9-6 at the end of the first period, but the Bulldogs opened the second quarter with an 8-2 run, highlighted by threes from Reeves and Tate Lowery, to open up a 17-8 advantage.

Several leads

After the Eagles outscored CHS 11-2 over the final 3:15 of the first half to knot the game at 19-19, Tate Lowery and Lowe buried consecutive treys to give Cornersville a 25-19 advantage early in the third period.

Eagleville then used an 8-1 spurt to pull ahead 27-26, but the Bulldogs outscored the Eagles 6-2 over the next two minutes with the help of five points from Tate Lowery to seize a 32-29 lead late in the third quarter.

Things quickly fell apart for CHS after that point, as the Eagles ripped off 10 straight points to grab a 39-32 advantage early in the fourth period.

Tate Lowery drilled a three to narrow the gap to 39-35, but Eagleville continued to pull away during crunch time and outscored Cornersville 14-2 the rest of the way to take home the 53-37 win.