Despite having leading scorer Morgan Terry relegated to the bench for much of the game due to foul trouble, the Cornersville Middle School Lady Bulldogs managed to grind out a win against archrival Richland on Monday night when they defeated the Lady Raiders 19-17 at home.

After losing to CMS 33-28 in their previous encounter on Oct. 31, Richland held a 17-14 lead early in the fourth quarter of Monday's contest and appeared to have Cornersville on the ropes once Terry fouled out a short time later.

Late shutout

The Lady Bulldogs, however, hunkered down defensively and shutout the Lady Raiders the rest of the way while closing the game with a 5-0 run, capped by an Emma Mitchell jumper with :11 left, to pull out the victory.

"We knew somebody was going to have to step up after Morgan fouled out. We didn't have anyone step up offensively, but we picked up our defensive intensity," said Cornersville coach Peyton Newton. "I was wondering where we were going to get buckets in the fourth quarter, but we forced enough turnovers and scored just enough points to win."

Richland finished with a 7-6 advantage in field goals and a 1-0 edge in three-pointers, but Cornersville outscored the Lady Raiders 7-2 at the charity stripe. The Lady Bulldogs also outrebounded Richland 39-29 and held a 15-14 advantage on the offensive glass.

Sara Beth Prosser and Hannah Singleton both tallied five points to lead the Lady Bulldogs with Prosser pulling down a game high 14 rebounds and Singleton recording five steals. Terry also added three points and nine rebounds, while KiAnna Holder, Mitchell, and Gabriel King chipped in two points apiece.

Riley Neely, Lexy Edwards, and Cora Henson paced Richland with five points each. Mary Taylor Lee notched two points for the Lady Raiders as well.

Cold start

CMS got off to an ice cold start offensively and failed to score in the first 7:50 of the contest while Richland built a 6-0 lead early in the second quarter.

After Prosser hit a layup at the 4:10 mark of the second period to trim the deficit to 6-2, Henson made one-of-two free throws to make it 7-2 before Terry converted a three-point play to narrow the gap to 7-5 at the break.

The Lady Raiders stretched their lead to 9-5 early in the third quarter on a layup by Edwards, but the Lady Bulldogs put together a 9-3 run with the help of three points from Prosser and baskets from Holder and King to pull ahead 14-12 with 1:05 left in the stanza.

Neely then banked in a three at the buzzer to give Richland a 15-14 advantage at the end of the third period before scoring on a layup with 5:45 left in the fourth to stretch the Lady Raiders' lead to 17-14.

Tight matchup

After Singleton hit three-of-four free throws to tie the game at 17-17, Mitchell knocked down a jumper in the waning moments of the contest to stake Cornersville to a 19-17 lead despite being fouled on the play.

Although Mitchell missed the free throw, the Lady Bulldogs regained possession with :02 when King jumped in front of a pass by Neely and forced a jump ball.

"Gabby came off the bench and played well. She's a seventh grader and I've been waiting for her to come around. She played well on the defensive end tonight," said Newton.

Cornersville then inbounded the ball and ran the remaining time off the clock to escape with the win.