The Forrest Rockets notched their second straight win on Tuesday night by going on the road and defeating county rival Cornersville 49-29.

Forrest (2-2) had trouble shaking the Bulldogs (0-3) in the first half and held just a 23-20 lead late in the second quarter.

The Rockets then began to distance themselves from CHS after that point and closed the first half with a 7-1 run to open up a 30-21 lead at the break before outscoring Cornersville 19-8 over the final two quarters to pull away for the 20-point win.

On the boards

Although the Rockets committed 17 turnovers and shot only 36 percent (14-of-39) from the field overall, which included a 6-of-17 effort from three-point range, Forrest outrebounded the Bulldogs 42-27 and held a 13-7 edge on the offensive glass.

"We had to battle tonight because Cornersville played hard. You know they're going to play hard and play tough so this was a great early season game for us," said FHS coach Wes Hobbs. "This was the first night our football players were back so it was nice to have more height and physicality in our frontcourt."

Ty Hoeft knocked down three treys and led the Rockets with 12 points and eight rebounds. Will Edmonson followed Hoeft with 10 points and nine rebounds, while Kennedy Mathis and Lucas Pruitt both added seven points. Blake Leonard also notched six points and Caleb Keller chipped in four points. Jake Townsend and Jacob Daughrity rounded out the scoring for Forrest with two and one point respectively.

The Bulldogs committed only 14 turnovers, but mustered just 11 field goals on 22 percent shooting and made a mere 2-of-20 attempts from beyond the arc.

Missed shots

"We just couldn't get shots to fall in the second half. We had a terrible half shooting. Forrest does a good job of getting into you and they have some length," said Cornersville coach Gerard Randolph. "We've also got to be more disciplined in our shot selection. We haven't played like a team in the second half the last two games. Our defense was good, but we just have to get in synch offensively."

Brian Lowe paced the Bulldogs with eight points and Tate Lowery tallied seven points. David Looney, Tyler Lowery, and Zack Smith notched four points apiece as well, while Jacob Reeves had two points.

FHS appeared they might have a cakewalk early on and jumped out to a 12-2 lead midway through the first quarter with the help of five points from Mathis and a Hoeft trey.

The Bulldogs began to claw their way back into it and put together a 9-3 run behind five points from Lowe to narrow the gap to 15-11.

Bulldog surge

After the Rockets tallied the last four points of the first quarter on an offensive put back by Leonard and two free throws to open up a 19-11 advantage, Cornersville outscored Forrest 9-4 through the first five minutes of the second period on the strength of four points from Smith and baskets from Tate Lowery and Lowe to slice the deficit to 23-20.

Forrest then rattled off seven straight points, highlighted by a Hoeft three, to push their lead 30-20 late in the second period prior to taking a 30-21 advantage into the break.

The Rockets stretched their lead to 32-21 early in the third quarter on a Pruitt layup, before the Bulldogs closed the gap to 34-26 midway through the stanza thanks to an offensive put back by Tate Lowery and a Tyler Lowery trey.

After Hoeft buried a three to give FHS a 37-26 advantage at the end of the third quarter, Tate Lowery scored on a layup at the start of the fourth quarter to cut the deficit to 37-28.

Cornersville would pull no closer the rest of the way, as the Rockets outscored the Bulldogs 12-1 over the final 5:30 with the aid of six points from Edmonson to wrap up their 49-29 victory.