On Friday night, the Forrest Rockets (2-4) let their guard down at an inopportune time, as they squandered a 10-point fourth quarter lead en route to dropping a 48-46 decision to the East Hickman Eagles at the Forrest Thanksgiving Tournament.

After taking a 31-24 lead into halftime, the Rockets opened up a 45-35 advantage with 3:15 left in the fourth quarter and appeared to have the game safely in hand.

Forrest, however, stumbled down the stretch, as East Hickman (1-4) closed the game with a 13-1 run to pull out the improbable two-point victory.

Problems arise

Although the Rockets shot a respectable 44 percent (18-of-41) from the field, Forrest knocked down just 3-of-11 three-point attempts and hit only 7-of-18 free throws, which included a 1-of-5 effort in the fourth quarter.

FHS also outrebounded the Eagles 28-14 and held a 10-6 edge on the offensive glass but offset their advantage on the boards by committing 17 turnovers.

"We just turned the ball over and didn't knock down some free throws at the end of the game. We lost our cool down the stretch and that's me included," said Forrest coach Wes Hobbs.

Blake Leonard paced the Rockets with 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting to go along with six rebounds. Jacob Daughrity tallied 10 points, six rebounds, and six assists as well, while Will Edmondson and Lucas Pruitt added eight points apiece. Kennedy Mathis, Ty Hoeft and Jake Townsend rounded out the scoring for Forrest with four, two, and one point respectively.

High mark

East Hickman came into Friday's contest averaging just 34 points per game, but scored a season high 48 points by hitting 16-of-36 shots and 7-of-17 attempts from beyond the arc.

"You just have to give East Hickman credit because they knocked down shots some of which were contested. They made plays to win the game and we didn't," said Hobbs.

Eagle forward Trey Phillips made 6-of-8 shots and 3-of-4 three-point attempts to finish with a game high 17 points. Jacob Stone followed Phillips with 13 points, while Ethan Keller and Austin King notched seven and five points respectively. Taylor Eubanks also chipped in four points for East Hickman and Brandon Harvill had two points.

Forrest appeared they might run the Eagles out of the gym early on and jumped out to a 12-3 lead midway through the first quarter on the strength of five points from Daughrity, four points from Pruitt, and an Edmondson trey.

After East Hickman used a 6-2 spurt to narrow the gap to 14-9, Pruitt scored consecutive layups to give FHS a 18-9 lead late in the first period.

Halftime lead

The Eagles put together a 10-3 run to slice the deficit to 21-19 early in the second quarter, but Forrest outscored East Hickman 10-5 over the final 5:10 of the half behind four points from Leonard to take a 31-24 advantage into the break.

FHS tallied seven of the first 11 points of the third quarter with the help of two baskets from Leonard and a Daughrity layup to stretch their lead to 38-28 before the Eagles tallied the final six points of the stanza to close the gap to 38-34.

The Rockets then opened the fourth period with a 7-1 spurt, highlighted by a Edmondson three, to forge a 45-35 advantage, but East Hickman rattled off eight straight points to whittle the deficit to 45-43 with 1:29 left.

After Daughrity hit one-of-two foul shots to extend FHS' lead to 46-43, Stone made two free throws to make it 46-45 before Harvill came up with a steal. Stone then converted a three-point play after being fouled on a layup to stake the Eagles to a 48-46 lead with 17.8 seconds remaining.

On Forrest's final possession, Hoeft was unable to connect on an off balance three-pointer before Phillips pulled down the rebound as time expired to seal East Hickman's victory.