The Forrest Lady Rockets won their third close game in a row, coming away with a tough 41-37 win at the Dottie Kelso Memorial Gymnasium in Lewisburg Friday night to keep a stranglehold on second place in the district standings and complete the regular season sweep over the Tigerettes.

“We are very excited to be in the position we are in, but we also know that we have two more games this week to finish out the regular season,” Forrest coach Corey Bishop said. “Nolensville will be a tough task for us, but we think we have a hard working group of players who will be ready for that challenge.”

It’s never easy winning at Dottie Kelso versus the always stingy Tigerettes’ defense and it wasn’t on Friday for Forrest, who fell behind early before clawing their way back to take a third quarter lead and then holding off a fourth quarter Marshall County comeback.

“Give Marshall County credit because they hit us with a great first quarter,” Bishop said. “Our team settled in and we challenged them in both the second and third quarters to be better on defense and they responded like we knew they would.”

The two teams battled evenly for much of the first quarter and a Laura Mealer bucket midway through the stanza gave Forrest a 7-6 lead before the Tigerettes put together an 8-0 run behind a pair of Dionna Crutcher 3-pointers, sandwiched around a Demiyah Blackman bucket in the low post to double up the lead at 14-7.

Ryann Lewis canned a rare 3-pointer for the Lady Rockets, but Crutcher nailed another long bomb and the then Lewis was fouled at the other end and made one-of-two from the free throw line and the first quarter ended with the Tigerettes in front by six points at 17-11.

Both teams went cold from the field until Macyn Kirby drilled a 3-pointer for Forrest with 4:49 remaining in the second quarter.

Mealer scored after a Marshall County missed shot and moments later Mealer was fouled and made both charity shots to put the Lady Rockets in front 18-17 with 2:15 left in the first half.

Crutcher, who led all scorers in the contest with 22 points, remained red-hot, draining another 3-pointer and Mealer was fouled again grabbing an offensive rebound made one-of-two from the foul line.

Kayla Keiler came up with a save on the baseline and Crutcher scored down low, but as the first half came to a close, Kirby was fouled behind the three-point arc and went to the free throw line for three shots with no time left on the clock.

Kirby drilled two-of-three with everyone watching, cutting the Marshall County lead to one point at 22-11 at the break.

“Macyn is just a solid basketball player,” Bishop said. “She is someone who has improved immensely from the beginning of the year and we are so proud of her.”

“She is just a tireless worker who does her job to help her team be successful.”

Mealer tied the game from the free throw line early in the third quarter and it stayed that way for a long time before Forrest eighth-grader Kinslee Inlow rained home a go-ahead 3-pointer with 3:41 remaining in the stanza.

The Tigerettes could not score and Addison Bunty’s 3-pointer near the two minute mark gave Forrest a 28-22 lead before MCHS scored its only points of the period on Keiler 3-pointer to cut the lead in half.

Mealer, who led the Lady Rockets with 16 points, scored to finish out the third period and Forrest took a 30-25 lead to the fourth quarter.

Israel Hurt scored in the low post for the Tigerettes to open up the fourth quarter scoring before Inlow went downtown again and moments later, Mealer hit both ends of a one-and-one situation from the free throw line to give Forrest its biggest lead of the game at eight points.

“We have complete and total trust in Laura Mealer,” Bishop said. “She is an extension of the coaching staff out there and is playing winning basketball.”

“This game we had to challenge her on the defensive end of the floor at halftime because Crutcher was having such a great game. It's just another element of her game that goes unnoticed, we think.”

The Tigerettes came right back as Hurt made one free throw before Crutcher drained her final 3-pointer of the game to make it 35-31 and Sydney Tidwell tightened the knot with a lay-up for Marshall County to make it a two-point game at 35-33 with two minutes to go.

Kirby made both ends of a one-and-one to make it a four-point game with 1:59 remaining in the game and moments later, Lewis came up with a huge blocked shot.

“Ryann has bought in to her role and we think she is just getting better every game,” Bishop said. “I have to give her a ton of credit as well to my coaching staff because they work extremely hard to improve.”

“She is going to be a huge part of our success as we move on if she can keep controlling the paint the way she has as of late.”

Forrest had a couple of chances to make it a two-possession game, but failed to do so from the free throw line before Hurt scored on a pretty inbounds play under the basket to make it 37-35 with 14.3 seconds left in the game.

Kirby canned two more clutch free throws with 11 seconds left, but a Crutcher score made it 39-37 and the Tigerettes fouled Mealer, who put the game away with two free throws with 1.8 seconds left in the intra-county rivalry matchup.

The Lady Rockets travelled to Nolensville for a first place battle on Tuesday and return home for the regular season finale versus Giles County on Friday night. Forrest lost to both earlier in the season.

The entire District 12-AA Tournament will feature the highest seed playing at home the entire tournament with no neutral site.

“We hope we get the opportunity to play in front of our fans at home, because the players love having that familiarity of having all of their families and peers cheering them on in a place they grew up watching games and playing games,” Bishop said.

Forrest 11 10 9 11-41

MCHS 17 5 3 12-37

Forrest (41): Laura Mealer 16, Macyn Kirby 12, Kinslee Inlow 6, Ryann Lewis 4, Addison Bunty 3.

Three-Point Goals (6): Kirby 2, Inlow 2, Bunty, Lewis.

Free Throws (15-for-22): Mealer 8-for-12, Kirby 6-for-8, Lewis 1-for-2.

Marshall County (37): Dionna Crutcher 22, Israel Hurt 5, Sydney Tidwell 5, Karlye Wiser 3, Demiyah Blackman 2.

Three-Point Goals (7): Crutcher 5, Wiser, Tidwell.

Free Throws (2-for-5): Hurt 1-for-2, Crutcher 1-for-2, Tidwell 0-for-1.

Halftime Score: Marshall County 22, Forrest 21.