If the Cornersville Lady Bulldogs hope to capture their sixth straight District 11-A regular season title, they will have to overcome an early deficit in the league standings after suffering a 49-45 road loss to the Richland Lady Raiders in their conference opener.

Playing their first game in 18 days, the Lady Bulldogs (3-2, 0-1 District) looked sluggish early and trailed by as many as 12 points in the second quarter before Richland took a 24-18 lead into halftime.

The Lady Raiders (4-5, 3-0 District) then opened up a 44-34 advantage midway through the fourth quarter prior to staving off a late rally by Cornersville to claim the four-point victory.

Cool shooting

Hindered by 7-of-26 shooting performance in the first half, the Lady Bulldogs shot just 31percent (16-of-52) from the field overall, which included a 5-of-20 effort from three-point range, while hitting only 8-of-15 free throws.

Cornersville did hold a 16-12 edge on the offensive glass, but Richland outrebounded the Lady Bulldogs 35-32 overall.

"I think having two and a half weeks off hurt us. It wasn't our effort that hurt us, but we didn't have the same focus," said CHS coach Peyton Newton. "We didn't do some of the small things like taking a charge or moving without the basketball. We also missed a bunch of easy shots too."

Senior guard Brooke Holt helped keep the Lady Bulldogs within striking distance by pouring in a game high 18 points and collecting 10 rebounds. Ashley Umbles followed Holt with 10 points, while Breanne Dunkleman and Madison Hopkins tallied eight and seven points respectively. Samantha Prosser chipped in two points for Cornersville as well.

Leader

"Brooke is always going to play as hard as she can. I appreciate the leadership she's shown this season," said Newton.

Despite hitting just 2-of-13 attempts from beyond the arc, Richland finished with 17 field goals on 40 percent shooting while knocking down 13-of-23 foul shots.

Ashton Edwards paced the Lady Raiders with 16 points and Shannon Higgins notched 12 points. Chelsea Payne and Shelby Allen also added eight points apiece for Richland.

Cornersville stumbled out of the gate, as the Lady Raiders raced out to an 11-4 lead late in the first quarter.

The Lady Bulldogs narrowed the gap to 11-8 thanks to a Holt layup and a jumper by Prosser, but Richland countered with an 11-2 spurt to forge a 22-10 advantage midway through the second period.

Holt takes off

Holt then singlehandedly outscored the Lady Raiders 8-3 over the final 3:08 of the first half by nailing two threes and hitting a layup to cut the deficit to 24-18 at the break.

After Holt buried another trey at the start of the third quarter to close the gap to 24-21, Richland put together a 14-8 run to open up a 38-29 advantage early in the fourth.

The Lady Bulldogs sliced the deficit to 38-34 on a Holt three and a jumper by Umbles, but the Lady Raiders rattled off off six consecutive points to stretch their lead to 44-34 with 3:25 left.

Following a trey by Hopkins, which narrowed the gap to 44-37, the Lady Raiders outscored CHS 5-4 over the next 1:08 to make it 49-41.

After Cornersville whittled the deficit to 49-45 with :15 left on the strength of two free throws from Holt and a Umbles baseline jumper, Richland's Callyn Schmidt missed two free throws to keep the door open for the Lady Bulldogs.

CHS, though, was unable to pull any closer, as Holt missed a long three-pointer on Cornersville's final possession before time expired during the scramble for the rebound.