The Forrest Rockets busted their 14-game losing streak in a big way at the Dottie Kelso Memorial Gymnasium in Lewisburg, coming back to beat the Tigers 54-47 in a District 12-AA intra-county rivalry contest Tuesday night.

“It’s nice to get a road win in the district,” Forrest coach Corey Bishop said. “We went a little old-school ball there with three posts and pounded the ball inside.”

“It’s kind of a secret that was in the bag and it was time to pull it out, we needed to get a win and we did, I’m just excited for the boys and proud of them.”

The Tigers, who had won four straight over the Rockets, had a cold shooting night as they were unable to make a 3-pointer the entire contest.

Canelius Turner scored 19 points, including a 9-for-14 effort from the free throw line to lead the Tigers in the scoring column and Devonte Davis was also in double figures with 10.

Cameron Curtis came up huge for the Rockets, scoring a game-high 23 points with 10 coming in the pivotal fourth quarter.

“Give credit to Marshall County, they battled with us and are a good team,” Bishop said. “It was a fun game between rivals.”

Curtis also banged home a pair of 3-pointers and went a solid 7-for-11 from the charity stripe.

The two squads played to a low scoring 8-8 tie after the first period and Forrest scored just eight more points the remainder of the first half, while MCHS tallied 14 to take a 22-16 halftime lead.

There was no ground made up or lost as both teams added 14 points apiece in the third period and the game went to the fourth quarter with the Tigers in front 36-30.

Connor Lewis got things going early for the Rockets with two low post buckets to cut the lead to two points and then Spencer McCown made 1-of-2 from the free throw to slice it to one point with 6:19 left in the game.

After a missed shot by MCHS, Joel Burton gave Forrest the lead when he canned two free throws after being fouled hauling in an offensive rebound.

Another Lewisburg miss sent Forrest up court where Curtis pulled up and drilled a 3-pointer, making it a 40-36 contest.

The Tigers responded with a Silas Hurt bucket in the low post and moments later, Turner made 1-of-2 from the free throw line to make it a 40-39 contest with 3:19 remaining in the game.

MCHS came up with a steal, but could not convert a layup and Curtis scored on a drive to the hoop, stretching Forrest’s lead to three points.

After a Tiger turnover, Andrew Timmons got fouled at the other end and made the first, but missed the second attempt with 2:08 left in the game.

The Tigers missed the front end of a one-and-one situation, but got the ball back and Turner hit both ends of a one-and-one to make it a one-point game.

The game turned in to a free throw shooting contest with Timmons and Curtis both making two more sandwiched between one made charity shot by Davis with Forrest in the lead 47-42.

Curtis was fouled again and made 1-of-2 before Turner drained a pair, but Curtis drove to the hoop at the other end to give the Rockets a 50-44 lead.

Turner cut it to five on 1-of-2 from the free throw line with 46.3 seconds left in the game.

McCown stepped up and drained one free throw before Burton was fouled and he made another to make it a three possession game at 52-45.

After a Tiger missed shot, Curtis drove hard to rim and was fouled before crashing in to the padding and it took a couple of minutes for the Forrest senior to get up.

An excessive foul was called and Curtis missed both free throws, but Forrest called timeout with 23.2 seconds left and had possession due to the foul on MCHS and that was game.

“The whole team was all out tonight and if you noticed at one point there were five seniors out on the court together, they were best friends battling for each other, they wanted to win,” Bishop said. “Give credit to them, give credit to the whole team, the assistant coaches did a great job, and I’m just extremely proud of everybody.”

The Rockets (2-17, 1-2) travel to Nolensville (6-10, 2-1) on Friday before returning for some home cooking as they play six straight in Chapel Hill, beginning on Saturday versus Lawrence County (3-11).

The Tigers (6-9, 1-2) travel to Murfreesboro Central Magnet School (8-11, 1-2) on Friday and host Nolensville on Tuesday.

“This can propel us to wherever we want to go,” Bishop said. “We have to continue to get better, continue to improve, it’s about continuous growth, max effort, and togetherness and maybe right now we are hitting all three and that’s what I want.”

Forrest 8 8 14 24-54

MCHS 8 14 14 11-47

Forrest (54): Cameron Curtis 23, Andrew Timmons 8, Connor Lewis 8, Spencer McCown 6, Joel Burton 5, Cole Villazon 4.

Three-Point Goals (3): Curtis 2, Timmons.

Free Throws (19-for-27): Curtis 7-for-11, Burton 5-for-6, Timmons 5-for-6, McCown 2-for-4.

Marshall County (47): Caneilus Turner 19, Devonte Davis 10, Kaamil Hazel 9, Silas Hurt 3, Javarria Rucker 2, Jayden Hart 2.

Three-Point Goals (0).

Free Throws (13-for-23): Turner 9-for-14, Davis 2-for-6, Hurt 1-for-2, Hazel 1-for-1.

Halftime Score: Marshall County 22, Forrest 16.