Eagleville stuns Cornersville in tourney opener

By Chris Siers ~ sports@t-g.com
Posted 2/15/23

CORNERSVILLE — After an 0-3 start in District 9-A play, the Cornersville Lady Bulldogs muddied up the district standings, rattling off four-straight wins. In the end, a coin toss decided the …

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Eagleville stuns Cornersville in tourney opener

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CORNERSVILLE — After an 0-3 start in District 9-A play, the Cornersville Lady Bulldogs muddied up the district standings, rattling off four-straight wins.
In the end, a coin toss decided the tiebreaker in the standings and put the Lady ‘Dawgs in the district play-in game.
But all good things must come to an end and Eagleville was able to take away Cornersville’s level of consistent scoring and ended the Lady ‘Dawgs’ season on Monday night in a 36-27 loss.
“We couldn’t get the shots to go down. I think they wanted it more than us in the first half, getting loose balls and rebounds. You can’t let that happen in big games,” Lady Bulldog coach Hayden McMahon said.
From the opening tip-off, Eagleville had a focus of taking away Lady ‘Dawg senior Alicia Polk’s effectiveness on the offensive end of the court.
Compounded with early-game foul trouble, McMahon had to turn to the supporting cast to carry the load.
For much of regulation, the combination of Ady Gentry in the low post and the dribble-drive penetration of Anna Wood helped keep Cornersville well-within striking distance.
After Jayli Childress drew a foul with 5:15 left to go, she hit both ensuing free throws to give Cornersville a 27-25 lead.
But scoring ran dry as open shots simply wouldn’t fall.
On the flip side, Eagleville rattled off three-straight treys and closed the quarter on a 11-0 run to end Cornersville’s season.
“They knew who they wanted to take away. I wanted to feed the ball to Ady, and Anna had some big shots. She wasn’t hitting her three, but she started getting to the bucket and hit some floaters,” McMahon said.
Eagleville hit five threes, with the three made triples in the fourth quarter being the back-breaker in momentum for the Lady ‘Dawgs.
Isabella Sawyer and Brinli Bain scored 11 and 10, respectively, to lead Eagleville.
Gentry led the home team with eight points.
While the season came to an abrupt close early in the postseason, the regular season was highlighted by a four-game district win-streak that included victories over Moore County, Huntland, Fayetteville and Eagleville.
“We believe we could beat anybody. We just got hot and beat some teams we haven’t beat in a long, long time. It was a fun streak to go on. They battled back from 0-3 and went 4-0,” McMahon said.
Monday night marked the final game Polk would play in a Cornersville uniform and her impact on the program can’t be ignored.
“She’s going to be missed. She’s a big piece. She was big piece when I got here. She bought in and she worked outside of here. She came in to work every day and put in extra time. She’s a great teammate and great friend to these players. I’m wishing her the best in college,” McMahon said.
Cornersville ends the season with a 13-14 overall record.


Eagleville 6 11 8 11 — 36
Cornersville 5 6 13 3 — 27

Eagleville: Isabella Sawyer 11, Brinli Bain 10, Eliza McClaran 8, Alex Klarer 7.
Cornersville: Ady Gentry 8, Jayli Childress 6, Anna Wood 5, Alicia Polk 3, Annabelle Mulliniks 3, Camille Franklin 2.
3-Point goals: Eagleville (5): McClaran 2, Bain 2, Sawyer; Cornersville (2): Childress, Mulliniks.
Halftime score: Eagleville 17, Cornersville 11.