LYNCHBURG — At one point early in the first half, the Forrest Lady Rockets trailed at Moore County by double figures.
Despite being on the road and facing a Moore County Raiderette team blessed with a lot of size and length, Forrest fought back and pulled within three points inside of a minute to go, but the earlier hole the Lady Rockets found themselves in proved too much to dig out as Forrest fell, 42-38, on Tuesday night in Lynchburg.
“We’re still a work in progress. I do think we’ve really improved since the start of the year. We can’t dig holes and we dug a double-digit hole in the first half. We don’t really have the firepower right now to overcome that. We did stay the course and continued to fight. I was very proud of the effort,” Lady Rocket coach Hal Murrell said.
Moore County utilized its size and was able to control the bulk of the game by attacking the rim and working its way to the free throw line.
In total, the Raiderettes shot 11-of-19 free throw attempts, compared to a 4-of-6 night by the Lady Rockets.
Despite trailing by six at the half, Forrest came out firing away from the perimeter and scored the first nine points of the second half from beyond the arc, including a pair of threes by senior Macyn Kirby within the first three minutes of the half.
After Kirby drilled a trey with 5:15 left in the third, Forrest had whittled the Raiderette lead to four points.
Although Forrest came out hot, the Lady Rockets were held scoreless through the remainder of the quarter and Moore County was able to extend its lead back to nine points. despite trailing by near double figures again, Forrest battled back and with 31 seconds left, Kinslee Inlow drilled a transition three-pointer to pull Forrest within five.
After Moore County’s Macy Fletcher missed the front end of a one-and-one with 29 ticks left in regulation, Inlow again came through and hit a put-back to bring the Lady Rockets within a single possession.
But with 15 seconds left, it was Moore County’s Madison Dingler who hit both attempts on a one-and-one to help preserve the lead.
Kirby did add a free throw in the closing seconds, but that was as close as Forrest could get to snatching the lead in the closing seconds.
“There’s still a lot of the little things we need to clean up with turnovers and giving them second chance points off the offensive glass. It’s really a tale of two halves. We need to play with the energy we did the last four minutes in the first three quarters and I think it would have been a different game,” Murrell said.
With the Lady Rockets battling injuries to key post players, the composition of the girls on the floor has been a work in progress through the first month of the season.
Moore County was able to lean on its size mismatch and control the game from inside the paint and off the glass.
“That was a the dilemma the whole game. That was a tale of where our shots came from and where theirs came from,” Murrell said.
With that mismatch, Forrest had to play to its strengths, which right now comes from the perimeter.
In total, Forrest out-shot Moore County 6-3 from beyond the arc on Tuesday night, with Kirby and Megan Mealer both connecting on a pair of treys.
“We’re having to play from the perimeter quite a bit. Hopefully as we progress through the next couple of weeks, we can get our guards to the rim a little bit more through penetration and kicks or getting to the rim and finish and foul and getting to the line,” Murrell added.
Kirby and Mealer both cracked into double figures and scored 12 points each, while no Raiderette hit the double-figure mark in the scoring column.
Forrest returns to its home court on Friday night, hosting backyard rival Eagleville at 6 p.m.

Forrest 14 14 5 9 — 42
Moore Co. 7 8 9 14 — 38

Forrest: Macyn Kirby 12, Megan Mealer 12, Kinslee Inlow 9, Josie Brown 3, Carli Warner 2.
Moore Co.: Madison Dingler 9, Ava Butts 8, Ellie Graham 7, Macy Fletcher 6, Paisley Logan 5, Katy Fletcher 3, Audrey Harder 2,
3-Point goals: Moore Co. (6): Kirby 2, Mealer 2, Inlow, Brown; Moore Co. (3): Logan, K. Fletcher, Dingler.
Halftime score: Moore Co. 28, Forrest 22.