The breakdown: Mt. Juliet boys roll past Hendersonville

Mt. Juliet’s boys opened the District 9-AAA Tournament with a convincing victory over Hendersonville on Friday afternoon, rolling to a 56-40 victory over the Commandos in the quarterfinals at Lebanon High School.

Breakdown of Friday’s game:

Records: Hendersonville 7-18, Mt. Juliet 20-8

Nuts and bolts: Mt. Juliet dominated the first half, leading 17-7 after one quarter and 30-9 at halftime. Hendersonville trimmed the gap to 12 points midway through the third quarter, but that was as far as the Commandos could get. The Golden Bears advance to the Region 5-AAA Tournament for the sixth consecutive season, while Hendersonville failed to advance for the fourth consecutive campaign.

Turning point: A 13-4 run to begin the contest sent the Golden Bears off and running.

Leading scorers: Hendersonville: Reggie Grisham 13, Weston Schwerdt 8, Jordan Amis 8. Mt. Juliet: Isaac Stephens, J.R. Sanders, Trey Pruitt 10.

Quotable: “I think the fear of any coach is we’ve beaten (Hendersonville) twice and played really good against them last time, so will you be ready to play after a week layoff,” Mt. Juliet head coach Troy Allen said. “ Our seniors did a great job of coming out and playing.”

“We didn’t really execute well early,” Hendersonville head coach Kerry West said. “When we played Mt. Juliet in this same exact game two years ago, we slowed the ball down and did a good job of making them panic a little bit. We tried to do a little of that, but we didn’t get off to a good start.”

Next up: Mt. Juliet advances to Saturday’s semifinals to face Station Camp at 5:30 p.m., while Hendersonville’s season ends with the loss.

Reach Chris Brooks at cbrooks@tennessean.com or 615-575-7118 and on Twitter @CBrooksTN.