On Thursday, the Cornersville Middle School Bulldogs (4-4) suffered their second straight loss when they were defeated 51-32 by the Riverside Christian Academy Knights in Fayetteville.

The Knights (7-3) put the hammer down early and forged a 33-6 lead in the first half before cruising to the 19-point victory.

"We weren't ready to play. We came out and scored easily at the start of the game and I think we thought it was going to be a cakewalk," said CMS coach Gerard Randolph. "Riverside Christian is a solid team and are fundamentally sound. Give them credit because they came out and hit us in the mouth."

Shooting stars

Bolstered by a 13-of-24 shooting performance in the first half, RCA shot 42 percent (19-of-45) from the field overall and knocked down 5-of-12 three-point attempts.

The Bulldogs, conversely, finished with only 11 field goals on 23 percent shooting, which included a 1-of-10 effort from beyond the arc. Cornersville did hold a 16-7 edge on the offensive glass, but the Knights outrebounded CMS 34-31 overall.

Kolbe McMahon led the Bulldogs with 12 points, 10 rebounds, and six steals. Darien Bush followed McMahon with six points, while Brice Dunkleman and Trenton Warren both tallied four points. Alexander Stewart, Will Vanhooser, and Riley Wickberg rounded out the scoring for Cornersville with three, two, and one point respectively.

Point guard Eli Wright came close to recording a triple-double and paced RCA with 15 points, 15 rebounds, and seven assists. Jacob Anderson and Will Elridge notched 11 and eight points respectively as well, while Tyler Southard and Evan Gleghorn added five points apiece. Garrett Albert also chipped in three points for the Knights and Tucker Lucas and Logan Crabtree each had two points.

RCA blast

McMahon scored on a layup in the opening moments of the game to give the Bulldogs a 2-0 lead, but things quickly went downhill for Cornersville, as RCA rattled off 14 straight points to seize a 14-2 advantage late in the first quarter.

After Bush scored on a layup to narrow the gap to 14-4, the Knights responded with a 10-0 run to push their lead to 24-4 midway through the second period.

Bush hit two free throws to trim the deficit to 24-6 before RCA tallied the final nine points of the half to open up a 33-6 advantage at the break.

Cornersville picked up their level of play at the start of the second half and put together a 13-8 run on the strength of seven points from McMahon and four points from Dunkleman to close the gap to 41-19 late in the third quarter.

Wright then buried a trey to stretch RCA's lead to 44-19 with :30 left in the third period before the Bulldogs outscored the Knights 13-7 the rest of the way behind four points from Warren and three points apiece from McMahon and Stewart for the 51-32 final.