Rockets give Bobcats all they can handle

Anthony S. Puca Sports Editor
Posted 2/14/21

The Forrest Rockets, mired in a 16-game losing streak, hosted Giles County for senior night in Chapel Hill on Friday and went toe-to-toe with the Bobcats, trailing by just four points late in the fourth quarter before falling 65-56. “The guys battled hard all throughout the game,” Forrest coach Corey Bishop said. “We just need to be more consistent for the entirety of each game and I believe if we do that then we will be fine.”...

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Rockets give Bobcats all they can handle

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The Forrest Rockets, mired in a 16-game losing streak, hosted Giles County for senior night in Chapel Hill on Friday and went toe-to-toe with the Bobcats, trailing by just four points late in the fourth quarter before falling 65-56.

“The guys battled hard all throughout the game,” Forrest coach Corey Bishop said. “We just need to be more consistent for the entirety of each game and I believe if we do that then we will be fine.”

The sixth-place Rockets (2-18, 0-10) travel to third place Nolensville (13-9, 6-4) on Wednesday, while the Bobcats (3-12, 3-7) travel to Murfreesboro Central Magnet School (10-10, 5-5) for the fourth/fifth place matchup. Both first round games were moved from Tuesday due to the winter weather emergency.

Forrest has lost eight straight to the Knights with their last win coming in a 69-65 triumph on January 30, 2018 at Nolensville.

The Marshall County Tigers (14-6, 8-2) fell at home to Nolensville 50-42, while Community (17-7, 8-2) won 48-38 at Central Magnet on Friday. Marshall County was awarded the district title via a coin toss and both squads got first round byes.

The Rockets dug themselves an early hole once again on Friday at Chapel Hill, trailing 19-9 at the end of the first quarter.

Giles County led by double digits for much of the second period, holding a 30-19 lead late in the stanza when the Rockets turned on the jets with a 9-0 run that began with a Herring bucket in the low post and ended with a Brennan Mealer long bomb that cut the Giles County lead to two points, entering the second half.

“The slow start hurt us, because we had to expend so much energy to get back within two before halftime,” Bishop said. “I really believe we are just a full game away from putting it all together and making some noise in the district tournament. We definitely have the potential for that moving forward.”

Jack Harper banged home a 3-pointer for the Bobcats to start the second half and Jaceion Coffey followed with a bucket in the paint to make it 35-28 before Forrest senior CJ Sanchez drilled a 3-pointer.

Giles County went on to take a 45-36 lead, but Herring scored back-to-back buckets in the paint to end the third quarter and the Rockets trailed 45-40 at the start of the fourth quarter.

“We had some good solid offensive and defensive possessions during the middle quarters,” Bishop said. “Turning up the pressure on defense helped us out and allowed us to get back into the game.”

Herring scored again on a rebound and outback to start the final period and Hunter Bennett followed with a steal and score to make it a one-point game at 45-44

Both teams went ice cold on offense until the 4:34 mark of the stanza when Brown hit both ends of a one and one situation from the free throw line.

Bennett struck from three-point land before the Bobcats went on a huge 5-0 mini-run to lead 54-47 with just over two minutes to play in the game.

Brown made two more free throws and then Bennett drilled another long bomb to keep the Rockets’’ hopes alive at 56-52.

From there, the Bobcats put away the Rockets from the free throw line, nailing 11-of-14 down the stretch to finish off the season sweep over the Rockets.

“We need to use this performance to jumpstart us going into the district tournament,” Bishop said. “It will be a tough task going on the road, but we have been in this position before and have confidence that if we play our game we can go in and be in any game against our district, so we are excited about the challenge going forward.”

Giles County 19 11 15 20-65

Forrest 9 19 12 16-56

Giles County (65): Jaceion Coffey 15, JC Brown 13, Jake Cardin 13, Matt King 11, Jack Harper 7, Clay Mitchell 4, Joe Dangerfield 2.

Three-Point Goals (5): King 3, Brown, Harper.

Free Throws (18-for-23): Brown 6-for-9, Cardin 7-for-7, Harper 2-for-4, Mitchell 2-for-2, Coffey 1-for-1.

Forrest (56): Walker Herring 22, Hunter Bennett 12, Brennan Mealer 6, CJ Sanchez 5, Andrew Timmons 4, Cole Perryman 4, Deason Jones 3.

Three-Point Goals (6): Mealer 2, Bennett 2, Jones, Sanchez.

Free Throws (6-for-8): Perryman 2-for-4, Sanchez 2-for-2, Herring 2-for-2.

Halftime Score: Giles County 30, Forrest 28.