On Monday night, the Cornersville Lady Bulldogs handed Huntland their first loss of the season when they went on the road and defeated the Lady Hornets 24-20.

Huntland (8-1) had defeated CMS decisively in the last six meetings between the two teams, including twice this season, but the Lady Bulldogs took the fight to the Lady Hornets early on in Monday's contest and led by as many as 10 points in the second quarter before taking a 16-8 lead into the break.

Cornersville (7-4) then had to withstand a late Huntland rally attempt that saw the Lady Hornets slice the deficit to two points in the fourth quarter before taking home the four-point victory.

"The first half we did everything that I've been preaching the whole year. We slowed the basketball down, we rebounded well, and we played physical. We played a great first half. We got back into some of our old habits in the second half, but we managed to hang on," said CMS coach Peyton Newton. "The girls are really happy with how they performed tonight. This was a good win for us."

Although Huntland held a 2-0 advantage in three-pointers, the Lady Bulldogs finished with a 9-8 edge in field goals and outscored the Lady Hornets 6-2 at the foul line. Cornersville did commit 11 more turnovers (27-16) than Huntland, but offset that by outrebounding the Lady Hornets 34-18, which included an 11-9 advantage on the offensive glass.

Center Morgan Terry helped CMS control the paint and led the Lady Bulldogs with 10 points, 17 rebounds, and four steals, and a blocked shot. KiAnna Holder and Emma Mitchell notched four and three points respectively as well, while Taylor Powers, Sara Beth Prosser, and Jordyn Hopkins chipped in two points apiece. Hannah Singleton rounded out the scoring for Cornersville with one point.

"Morgan played real big. She was real excited about playing Huntland again and has worked hard the last two weeks," said Newton.

Taylor Elrod paced Huntland with eight points, while Courtney Frame, Gabby Bland, and Savannah Foster each tallied four points.

The Lady Hornets took an early 3-0 lead on a trey by Elrod before Holder and Mitchell combined to make three-of-four free throws to tie the game at 3-3 midway through the first quarter.

Foster scored on a layup to put Huntland up 5-3, but the Lady Bulldogs suddenly caught fire offensively and put together a 12-0 run behind six points from Terry and baskets from Holder, Powers, and Mitchell to seize a 15-5 advantage midway through the second period.

After the Lady Hornets tallied three of the last four points in the half to trim the deficit to 16-8 at the break, CMS opened up an 18-8 advantage at the start of the third quarter thanks to an offensive put back by Terry.

Huntland rattled off six straight points to narrow the gap to 18-14 before Terry scored on an offensive put back to give Cornersville a 20-14 lead at the end of the third period.

In the fourth, the Lady Hornets used a 6-2 spurt to slice the deficit to 22-20 late in the quarter, but Prosser hit a layup with :23 left to push the Lady Bulldogs' lead to 24-20.

Huntland then came up empty on their next possession before Cornersville managed to burn the remaining time off the clock to escape with the win.