After defeating Elkton 41-23 the previous evening, the Cornersville Middle School Bulldogs (4-3) had their four-game winning streak snapped on Tuesday night when they lost 40-21 to the Bridgeforth Bobcats at home.

Having beaten CMS 21-11 in their previous encounter on Oct. 22, the Bobcats (4-0) held a 21-12 lead at the end of the first half in Tuesday's contest before outscoring Cornersville 19-9 over the final two quarters to complete the sweep of the season series.

By the numbers

Bolstered by a 6-of-9 shooting performance in the third quarter, Bridgeforth shot 41 percent (18-of-44) from the field overall, which included a 3-of-13 effort from three-point range. The Bobcats also outrebounded the Bulldogs 21-16 and held a 13-7 edge on the offensive glass.

Rashun Johnson paced Bridgeforth with 13 points and Walker Galbrieth tallied seven points. Bryce Wallace and Brandon Rowan notched six points apiece as well, while Sam Hatfield had five points. Knox Birdsong and K.J. Zeigler rounded out the scoring for the Bobcats with two and one point respectively.

Cornersville, conversely, finished with only nine field goals on 36 percent shooting and knocked down just 1-of-5 attempts from beyond the arc. The Bulldogs also had trouble breaking Bridgeforth's full court press, as the Bobcats recorded 22 steals en route to forcing 27 CMS turnovers.

Pressure

"Their pressure killed us and they scored off of our turnovers. That's what good teams do," said Cornersville coach Gerard Randolph. "Our defense wasn't good at all either. We lost our help side defense and they made us pay for it. Give them credit because they played well."

Forward Kolbe McMahon shouldered much of the offensive load for the Bulldogs and poured in a game high 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting to go along with four rebounds and four steals. Trenton Warren and Alexander Stewart chipped in two points for Cornersville as well, while Darien Bush and Brice Dunkleman each had one point.

The Bobcats controlled the opening quarter of play and built a 10-5 lead through the first six minutes of play behind six points from Johnson.

McMahon hit a layup and knocked down a three early in the second period to tie the game at 10-10, but Bridgeforth responded with a 6-0 spurt to pull back ahead 16-10.

Bobcat run

After McMahon scored on an offensive put back to narrow the gap to 16-12, the Bobcats tallied five points in the final seven seconds of the half on a layup from Wallace and a Johnson trey to take a 21-12 advantage into the break.

In the second half, McMahon sandwiched a pair of layups around a Wallace basket to trim the deficit to 23-16 midway through the third quarter, but Bridgeforth broke the game open by ripping off 14 straight points to forge a 37-16 lead early in the fourth period.

Cornersville then outscored the Bobcats 5-3 the rest of the way with the help of baskets from Stewart and Warren for the 40-21 final.