The Marshall County Tigers picked up their second win in a row, but it wasn’t easy as they had to hold off a determined Cornersville Bulldog squad trying to defend their home court on Tuesday night.

The two intra-county rivals, playing for the first time in 13 years, battled back and forth the entire contest with the Tigers staving off a late Bulldogs’ charge to win 41-39.

“It is great to get two big close wins to bring in the New Year,” Marshall County head coach Lavon King said.

Marshall County’s Silas Hurt led all scorers with a dozen points with eight coming in the pivotal fourth quarter.

Hurt went a clutch 6-for-9 from the free throw line and made 4-of-6 charity shots in the final minutes of the game.

“Silas played tremendous in the fourth quarter,” King said. “I hope he continues to be consistent as we head into district play.”

Kaamil Hazel and Bryson Hughes scored nine points apiece, Devonta Davis and Jayden Hart added four points apiece, and Kintarius Morris had one point for the Tigers.

Eli Welch had 10 points to lead the Bulldogs, Michael Ashley scored eight (2 three’s), Khi Canty netted seven, Bryce Woodard scored five, Kaden Allen had four, Andrew Santini made one 3-pointer, and Blaine Woodard had two clutch free throws for two points.

The two squads played to a low scoring 9-9 first quarter and scoring was also hard to come by in the second period as the Bulldogs scored seven points and the Tigers netted six for a 16-15 halftime lead for Cornersville.

“I just told them to make better decisions and work harder on the defensive side of the ball,” King said about the halftime strategy talk. “The third period we did a better job defensively to get some easy baskets.”

The Tigers listened and came out hot to start the second half, putting together a 10-2 run behind some great pressure defense and five Hughes points to take a 25-18 lead.

Ashley drilled a 3-pointer for the Bulldogs to stop the MCHS run and they continued to chip away at the Tigers’ lead, eventually slicing it to just two points on a late Ashley basket to make it a 27-25 contest, entering the fourth quarter.

A Canty free throw to start the final period cut the lead to one point and seconds later, Blaine Woodard calmly nailed two free throws to put the Bulldogs in front 28-27 with 7:09 remaining in the game.

A Kaamil Hazel 3-pointer capped off an 8-2 Marshall County run that made it a 35-30 contest with just over three minutes to play, but once again the Bulldogs came back.

Bryce Woodard made it a one-point game at 37-36 with 1:22 left in the contest when he came up with a three-point play the old-fashioned way.

Hurt made one-of-two from the free throw line before Kaamil Hazel came up with a huge steal with 46 seconds left in the game.

Seconds later, Hurt nailed both ends of a clutch one-and-one opportunity from the free throw line to make it a four-point game and after another untimely Bulldog turnover, Kaamil Hazel made one of two from the charity stripe with 8.1 seconds left.

A Santini 3-pointer cut the lead to two points, but the ensuing inbounds pass was secured by the Tigers and the clock ticked to zero.

“We still have a lot of work to do, especially on the defensive end,” King said. “I have changed up our style of play and the players are still trying to adjust to it.”

Marshall County 9 6 12 14-41

Cornersville 9 7 9 14-39

Marshall County (41): Silas Hurt 12, Kaamil Hazel 9, Bryson Hughes 9, Devonta Davis 4, Jayden Hart 4, Kintarius Morris 1.

Three-Point Goals (2): Hazel 2.

Free Throws (9-for-18): Hurt 6-for-9, Hughes 1-for-3, Morris 1-for-2, Hazel 1-for-2, Silas Hart 0-for-2.

Cornersville (39): Eli Welch 10, Michael Ashley 8, Khi Canty 7, Bryce Woodard 5, Kaden Allen 4, Andrew Santini 3, Blaine Woodard 2.

Three-Point Goals (3): Ashely 2, Santini.

Free Throws (8-for-14): Canty 5-for-8, Blaine Woodard 2-for-2, Bryce Woodard 1-for-3, Welch 0-for-1.

Halftime Score: Cornersville 16, Marshall County 15.