After advancing to the Class A State tournament last season, the Mt. Pleasant Tigers showed why many people believe they have the potential to make another deep playoff run when they rolled to a 74-42 victory over the Cornersville Bulldogs (2-5, 1-2 District) on Tuesday night at CHS.

Mt. Pleasant (5-2, 3-0 District) put the game out of reach early and built a 40-14 lead in the first half before outscoring the Bulldogs 34-28 over the final two quarters to cruise to the 32-point victory.

Oiled and rolling

The Tigers' offense ran like a well oiled machine, as they shot a blistering 55 percent (24-of-44) from the field and knocked down 6-of-11 three-point attempts while committing only eight turnovers and dishing out 15 assists as a team. Mt. Pleasant also outrebounded CHS 29-21 and held a 9-7 advantage on the offensive glass.

"We just got outplayed. They're really athletic and we just couldn't stay with them," said Cornersville coach Gerard Randolph. "We needed to do all the little things right in order to play with them and we didn't do that. Mt. Pleasant does a lot of things well and finished when they got to the rim."

Jordan Woodson led three Tiger players in double figures with 16 points, while Walter Crawford and Dakota Brown tallied 11 points apiece. Ken'Yores Smith and Tez Rogers added nine points apiece for Mt. Pleasant as well and Jeshawn Miller notched eight points.

Bulldogs struggle

Despite hitting 11-of-21 field goal attempts in the second half, the Bulldogs shot only 38 percent (14-of-37) from the floor overall, which included a 3-of-13 effort from beyond the arc, while committing 18 turnovers.

Tate Lowery paced Cornersville with 10 points and Stone Riner and Wes Meadows tallied eight and seven points respectively. Jacob Reeves and J.D. Crabtree also added four points apiece, while David Looney and Brian Lowe each chipped in three points. Jamie Crowell and Michael Allen both notched one point for CHS as well.

Mt. Pleasant came charging out of the gates and built a 14-3 lead midway through the first quarter.

The Bulldogs cut the deficit to 16-8 late in the first period with the help of two free throws from Riner and a Meadows trey, but the Tigers responded with a 10-3 run to open up a 26-11 advantage early in the second quarter.

Tiger run

After Riner hit two free throws to narrow the gap to 26-13, Mt. Pleasant rattled off 14 straight points to push their lead to 40-13 prior to taking a 40-14 advantage into the break.

Cornersville outscored the Tigers 11-10 over the first four minutes of the third quarter on the strength of eight points from Lowery to trim the deficit to 50-25, but the Tigers responded with an 11-4 spurt to push their lead to 61-29 early in the fourth period.

The Bulldogs then put together a 10-4 run behind four points from Reeves to close the gap to 65-39 midway through the fourth quarter before Mt. Pleasant notched nine of the last 12 points in the contest to cap their 74-42 triumph.