Stories from Friday, January 20, 2017

The Forrest Lady Rockets celebrated 100 years of girls basketball at Chapel Hill in a big way Friday night versus Fayetteville, routing the Lady Tigers 74-38. "It was a great atmosphere Friday night and it meant a lot to us that there were so many former players here to watch the game," Forrest coach Jeremy Jean said. "I think it gave the team a little extra boost, wanting to play well in front of all those players." Forrest's Madison Curtis and Fayetteville's DJ Horton traded baskets to start the game before the Lady Rockets blasted into another galaxy, scoring 27 straight points for the early knockout punch.

The Forrest Rockets, inspired by the big crowd on hand at Chapel Hill Friday night for 100 Years of Forrest Lady Rockets Basketball and Homecoming used the energy to defeat Fayetteville 48-40. "It was a big win, the crowd was really cool," Forrest coach Randy Tombs said. "It was a fun game to watch and coach and its fun for me when I can sit back and watch the kids play."

Perhaps nobody outside its own locker room expected the Tigerettes to progress to the point the 2017 team had coming into Friday night's game against Page. With seven wins midway through the season the Tigerettes had already tied the win total of the past two seasons combined with a chance to pass that total with a win over the Lady Patriots. But Page (9-7, 2-1) wasn't quite ready to let the upstart Tigerettes (7-8, 1-2) ruin its second place standing so easily, handing Marshall County its eighth loss of the season in a tight 47-35 contest.

The Lewisburg Middle team found itself in a familiar situation on Saturday on the opening day of the James C. Haile Tournament at Middle Tennessee Christian by bringing in an ultra-talented team with a great record onto the court, but going up a tough draw in North Middle School from Winchester. Last season under similar circumstances the highly rated Tigerettes (11-4) opened the tournament up against Avery Trace Middle with a substantial lead before going cold in the second half and ending the season with an upset loss. This season the Tigerettes opened the game up ice cold from the field before finding its range in the fourth quarter, but much too late for the comeback and suffered another disappointing season ending loss at 48-21.

Following a late season winning streak, the Lewisburg Middle School boys received a bye in the first round of the James C. Haile Tournament at Middle Tennessee Christian School and opened the tournament against Macon County Middle in the second round on Monday night. The Tigers trailed big in the first quarter before mounting an inspiring comeback in the second quarter and briefly taking the lead before running out of gas late in the fourth quarter and ending the season with 50-39 loss. "I think we did well," LMS coach David Lovell said. "I mean, it's a three-point game and then they hit three three's in a row and all of a sudden we're down 12. And (the shots) were from 25 feet. And so you don't see that much in middle school and our guys weren't ready for it."

Tuesday, January 10 at Eagleville Forrest 51, Eagleville 30 106 Pounds: Gabriel Pennington (Eagleville) over Carter Jones (Forrest), (Fall 0:15), 0-6 113: Jeffrey Gross (Forrest) over Wyatt McLemore (Eagleville) (Dec 7-6), 3-6 120: Blaine Fussell (Eagleville) over Hunter Pendley (Forrest) (Fall 1:29), 3-12 126: Alex Eaton (Eagleville) over Anthony Moretti (Forrest) (Fall 2:39), 3-18 132: Max Tidwell (Eagleville) over Carson Blackwell (Forrest) (Fall 3:46), 3-24 138: Parker Stuard (Forrest) over Unknown (Forfeit), 9-24 145: William Magoon (Eagleville) over Cole Geeting (Forrest) (Fall 0:57), 9-30 152: Dylan Walls (Forrest) over Bradley Stiles (Eagleville) (Fall 0:45), 15-30 160: Noah Hill (Forrest) over Unknown (Forfeit), 21-30 170: Bryton Spitzley (Forrest) over Unknown (Forfeit), 27-30 182: William Rorabaugh (Forrest) over Unknown (Forfeit), 33-30 195: William Eddins (Forrest) over Jeremiah Jones (Eagleville) (Fall 2:43), 39-30 220: Billy Clanton (Forrest) over Unknown (Forfeit), 45-30 285: Sam Williams (Forrest) over Unknown (Forfeit), 51-30