Rockets bounce Knights in opening round road win

Anthony S. Puca Sports Editor
Posted 2/22/21

The losing streak is over for Forrest. The Rockets’ last win came on November 23, 2020 and they had lost 16 games in a row coming into Monday night’s District 12-AA Tournament opener at Nolensville where they turned in their best game of the season, knocking the Knights out of the postseason with a convincing 55-49 win...

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Rockets bounce Knights in opening round road win

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The losing streak is over for Forrest.

The Rockets’ last win came on November 23, 2020 and they had lost 17 games in a row coming into Monday night’s District 12-AA Tournament opener at Nolensville where they turned in their best game of the season, knocking the Knights out of the postseason with a convincing 55-49 win.

“It just showed our resiliency and character as competitors to fight through a ton of adversity,” Forrest coach Corey Bishop said. “To go on the road and beat essentially a 4A school in a play-in game just shows that our players have a lot of heart and desire. I'm so proud of them.”

The Knights had beaten Forrest nine straight times, including a 30-point thrashing in last year’s district tournament semifinal at Lewisburg.

“It is a tremendous feeling,” Bishop said. “I know that our guys are glad to get that behind them.”

“It would've been very easy to quit when you haven't won a game since November, but the focus never wavered.”

The Rockets also clinched a berth in the upcoming Region 6-AA Tournament and travel to Unionville tonight for a district tournament semifinal game with the Vikings at 7:30 p.m.

“It's all about the postseason, this is when you want to play your best games and play your best as a team,” Bishop said.

Contributions were plentiful for the Rockets at Nolensville as Forrest had four players in double figures with Andrew Timmons leading the way with 12 points, including two out of the ten 3-pointers in the contest for the Rockets.

“We had talked about it all year that if we could have everyone contribute from the three point line that we would be a tough out, and hitting double figure threes is just a testament to the work we put in,” Bishop said. “Shooting is contagious, if someone hits one, usually you can get in a rhythm as a team.”

CJ Sanchez and Hunter Bennett had 11 points apiece for the Rockets with Sanchez banging home three 3-pointers and Bennett raining home a pair of huge fourth quarter treys, while making all five of his free throws.

Walker Herring banged home 10 points in the low post, Deason Jones nailed a pair of 3-pointers for six points, Brennan Mealer had one long bomb for three points, and Cole Perryman added two points.

Bishop was happy about the balanced scoring attack, saying, “It's definitely nice to have because it provides more opportunity on the offensive end to be successful if you don't have to be one dimensional and count on just a couple of guys.”

“Also, from a scouting report point of view it becomes difficult to decide who you are going to stop.”

Davin Watkins had a big game for the Knights with a game-high 22 points, including a solid 10-for-11 effort from the free throw line.

Forrest set the tone from the opening tip as they smothered the Knights on the defensive end and led 6-4 at the end of the first quarter.

“We thought we had a good defensive game plan,” Bishop said. “I think it helped us playing them there a couple of weeks ago and just having a sense of what they might do leading into the game.’

“We wanted to cover up their shooters and make them drive to the basket and earn every point.”

The Rockets opened the second quarter with a 7-3 run behind a pair of Herring low post buckets and a Bennett 3-pointer before Nolensville came back with a 12-3 burst of their own, capped off by a Riley Byron 3-pointer that put the Knights in front 17-16 with less than a minute to play in the first half.

Timmons drilled a 3-pointer to match Byron and Watkins nailed two free throws with two seconds left in the first half, tying the game at 19.

The Knights scored the first four points of the third quarter to seize the lead again and still led 29-27 midway through the stanza when Forrest turned it on with a 10-0 run that began with a Mealer 3-pointer and ended on a long bomb by Timmons that gave the Rockets a 37-29, entering the fourth quarter.

“I think we just got into a great flow running our sets, which we thought our continuity offenses would be more successful than our quick hitters,” Bishop said. “Give the guys credit, they executed high level offenses to the greatest extent.”

Jones rained home a 3-pointer for the Rockets to start the final stanza to make it a double-digit lead, but the comfort was short-lived as the Knights began a serious comeback.

Nolensville clawed its way back in to the game and eventually came within three points of the Rockets at 42-39 on a three-point play the old-fashioned way by Watkins midway through the final stanza.

Bennett came up huge, answering with a rainbow 3-pointer to make it a six-point game in favor of the Rockets and after a Nolensville field goal, Bennett drilled a laser from downtown, giving Forrest a 48-41 lead with just over two minutes to play in the contest.

“They (Nolensville) are a great team, playing at home, we knew a run was coming,” Bishop said. “I thought instead of panicking, we settled down and continued to execute offensively which is a sign of a teams' maturity.”

The Knights came back again, cutting the Forrest lead to 48-45 with 1:53 left in the game after four consecutive free throws by Watkins and a missed one and one opportunity by the Rockets from the charity stripe.

Sanchez stopped the Knights in their tracks with a long bomb to make it 51-45 and then the game turned in to a free throw shooting contest.

The Rockets had multiple chances to put the Knights away, but could not convert from the free throw line.

The Forrest defense stood tall every time after the misses and Timmons and Bennett finally got two free throws apiece to fall inside 35 seconds left and the Rockets held on for the win.

“Every defensive possession is important, especially in the fourth quarter and our guys did a great of limiting to them to one shot and controlling the defensive rebounding,” Bishop said. “It was a crucial part of the game that I'm glad we won on the stat sheet.”

The Rockets (3-18) have lost seven straight games to Vikings (17-7), who beat Murfreesboro Central Magnet School 48-38 in Murfreesboro Monday night.

“They (Community) are very well-coached with some good basketball players with a lot of big game experience,’ Bishop said. “But, I'm excited about the challenge and I know our team is happy about having the opportunity to compete in this game.”

Forrest 6 13 18 18-55

Nolensville 4 15 10 20-49

Forrest (55): Andrew Timmons 12, Hunter Bennett 11, CJ Sanchez 11, Walker Herring 10, Deason Jones 6, Brennan Mealer 3, Cole Perryman 2.

Three-Point Goals (10): Sanchez 3, Jones 2, Bennett 2, Timmons 2, Mealer.

Free Throws (11-for-18): Bennett 5-for-5, Timmons 4-for-6, Herring 2-for-2, Jones 0-for-2, Perryman 0-for-2, Sanchez 0-for-1.

Nolensville (47): Davin Watkins 22, Ashton Smith 10, Keidron Batey 6, Riley Byron 5, Max McAllister 2, Grady Powers 2, Vaughn Jaworski 2.

Three-Point Goals (2): Smith, Byron.

Free Throws (13-for-14): Watkins 10-for-11, Batey 2-for-2, Smith 1-for-1.

Halftime Score: Forrest 19, Nolensville 19.