The Cornersville Lady Bulldogs gave their fans an early present on Thursday afternoon when they defeated two-time defending District 12-AA champ Page 38-26 at the Community Christmas Classic.

Cornersville (6-2) led from start to finish and built a 21-10 advantage in the first half before outscoring the Lady Patriots 17-16 over the final two quarters to claim their third straight victory.

Tight defense

The Lady Bulldogs kept Page (2-5) from getting the ball into the paint and forced the Lady Patriots to shoot perimeter jumpers for most of the afternoon. As a result, Page mustered just 11 field goals on 23 percent shooting, which included a 3-of-21 effort from three-point range, while committing 16 turnovers.

Cornersville, meanwhile, shot 35 percent (13-of-37) from the field, knocked down 2-of-9 attempts from beyond the arc, and outscored the Lady Patriots 10-1 at the foul line. The Lady Bulldogs did commit 22 turnovers, but outrebounded Page 37-24 and held a 12-10 edge on the offensive glass.

"Offensively we were a little bit stagnant and didn't move well without the ball, but we did play well on defense and forced them to shoot a lot of jumpers," said CHS coach Peyton Newton.

Double-double

Senior shooting guard Brooke Holt recorded her second double-double of the season and led the Lady Bulldogs with 15 points, 10 rebounds, and three steals. Carson Coble followed Holt with six points, while Madison Hopkins and Ashley Umbles both tallied five points. Samantha Prosser, Kelsey Wortham, and Morgan Terry rounded out the scoring for Cornersville with four, two, and one point respectively. Britton Stewart failed to scored for CHS, but grabbed a game high 11 rebounds.

Marlee Stephens paced Page with 10 points, while Carli Batsel notched eight points. Peyton Clark chipped in five points for the Lady Patriots as well and Elizabeth Hood had three points.

The Lady Bulldogs knocked Page on their heels at the start of the game and raced out to a 9-0 lead midway through the first quarter on the strength of four points from Hopkins, a Prosser baseline jumper, and a trey from Coble.

"We knew coming in here that it was going to be a quiet gym and out of our normal routine so it was huge that we got off to a fast start," said Newton.

In front to stay

Page used a 7-1 spurt to slice the deficit to 10-7 early in the second period, but Cornersville outscored the Lady Patriots 11-3 over the final 5:52 of the half behind six points from Holt and a pair of baskets from Prosser and Wortham to take a 21-10 advantage into the break.

After Page tallied the first four points of the third quarter to narrow the gap to 21-14, Umbles nailed a three and hit a turnaround bank shot to give CHS a 26-14 lead late in the stanza.

Stephens then banked in a trey from the left wing with :25 left in the third period to cut the deficit to 26-17 before Holt singlehandedly outscored the Lady Patriots 6-2 over the next 1:42 to stake the Lady Bulldogs to a 32-19 advantage early in the fourth.

Page tried to put together a last ditch rally and went on a 7-0 run to close the gap to 32-26 with 2:24 left, but Cornersville kept the Lady Patriots at bay and notched the final six points of the contest with the help of a Coble layup and four three throws to cap their 38-26 triumph.