After dropping three straight District 12-AA games in a row, the Forrest Lady Rockets beat Murfreesboro Central Magnet (9-6, 3-4) on the road by two points on Friday and the Chapel Hill girls gutted out a tough 45-42 win at Community (8-10, 3-4) on Tuesday night to move into second place in the league standings.

“Every game is tough on the road, especially in your district, but I thought the girls played one of their better games of the year and demonstrated a lot of poise late in the game,” Forrest coach Corey Bishop said.

The Lady Rockets (7-10, 4-3) have three district games remaining, beginning with an intra-county rivalry showdown at Marshall County (4-12, 2-5) Friday night.

Forrest travels to first place Nolensville (13-5, 6-1) on Tuesday before returning home for the regular season finale next Friday versus Giles County (5-9, 3-4) on Senior Night at Chapel Hill.

“We don't really start to look at seeding this time of the year because there are too many games left,” Bishop said. “We are taking it one practice and game at a time and we know the challenges that Marshall County will bring us.”

‘They are fantastic on the defensive end and it doesn't get much tougher from a coaching perspective going against David Steely on the road.”

Senior Laura Mealer was solid again at Community Tuesday night, scoring 14 points.

“Laura is doing a great job of running our offense and being a facilitator, while also picking her spots to go score the ball,” Bishop said. “We feel as if we are becoming more balanced on offense every game.”

Eighth-grader Kinslee Inlow had another huge game for Forrest, also netting 14 points, including four 3-pointers.

Inlow pulled down some big rebounds as well for the Lady Rockets, who got eight points from Macyn Kirby and four points by Ryann Lewis, who also had several rebounds.

Addison Bunty nailed one 3-pointer and Megan Mealer had two points and the game saving blocked shot on Community’s final possession.

Forrest scored 11 points in the first period and came out with a great defensive intensity to start the game and it carried throughout the entire contest.

The Lady Rockets took a one-point lead to the second period when Inlow went off, raining home three 3-pointers in the stanza and Forrest led by as many as nine points before Community went on a 6-0 mini-run to trail 26-23 at the half.

“Kinslee did great doing her job,” Bishop said. “We ask her to be a knock down shooter when defenses collapse on our other players.”

“That's a difficult thing to ask for an eighth-grader, but she was confident in her shot and helped her team out.”

The two squads battled back and forth for much of the third period as two free throws by MJ Simmons made it a 28-27 contest in favor of Forrest before Mealer scored and Inlow followed moments later with a long bomb from the corner.

“From the beginning of the year until now, I believe that we have improved immensely in taking care of the ball,” Bishop said. “We try to end every possession with the best available shot.”

Simmons, who led all scorers in the game with 21 points, scored in the low post and Mealer countered at the other end with a drive to the hoop to make it 35-29.

Kirby drilled a 3-pointer after a Community turnover, but a Breanna Whitaker bucket off a late inbounds play made it 38-31, entering the fourth quarter.

One Brianna Beech free throw by Community was all the scoring for the first five minutes of the final period before Bunty and Haley Mitchell exchanged 3-pointers.

Inlow came up with a huge rebound and put-back and Mitchell did the same for the Viqueens at the other end as Forrest led 43-37 with 2:21 remaining in the contest.

Lewis stepped to the free throw line with 1:59 left and calmly canned both ends of a crucial one-and-one opportunity from the free throw line before the Viqueens made a run on a low post bucket and a 3-pointer by Simmons to cut the Forrest lead to 45-42 with less than a minute to play.

The Lady Rockets had two opportunities to seal the game from the free throw line, but missed the front end of a one-and-one two times and the Viqueens had the ball and called timeout with 4.8 seconds remaining in the battle at Unionville.

Megan Mealer was inserted back in to the game for defensive purposes and it paid off handsomely when she came up with the game saving blocked shot to secure the three-point win for Forrest.

Forrest 11 15 12 7-45

Community 10 13 8 11-42

Forrest (45): Laura Mealer 14, Kensie Inlow 14, Macyn Kirby 8, Ryann Lewis 4, Addison Bunty 3, Megan Mealer 2.

Three-Point Goals (7): Inlow 4, Kirby 2, Bunty.

Free Throws (6-for-8): Mealer 4-for-5, Lewis 2-for-2, Kirby 0-for-1.

Community (42): MJ Simmons 21, Haley Mitchell 11, Breanna Whitaker 8, Brianna Bush 2.

Three-Point Goals (2): Mitchell, Simmons.

Free Throws (8-for-10): Simmons 4-for-4, Whitaker 2-for-2, Bush 2-for-4.

Halftime Score: Forrest 26, Community 23.