Stories from Sunday, January 22, 2017

Prior to March 1, 2010, the Forrest Lady Rockets had never lost to Middle Tennessee Christian School, but on that fateful night everything changed when the Lady Cougars upset Chapel Hill in the Region 5A Tournament semifinals at East Robertson. From then on it has been a war on the hardcourt between the two schools with the latest battle taking place at Forrest Tuesday night where the Lady Rockets made it five wins in a row over the Lady Cougars after clawing out a tough 61-55 win.

The last time Cornersville and Santa Fe met, the Bulldogs embarrassed the Wildcats with a 54-point blowout win in a game Santa Fe scored just 16 points. Tuesday night the Wildcats (1-15, 0-8) showed they had drastically improved since early December, trailing by just 10 points two minutes into the third quarter before the Bulldogs turned up the heat and won going away 70-43 in a wild game for both teams.

The up and down Forrest Rockets took a nose dive on Tuesday at Chapel Hill, suffering an 81-59 blowout loss at the hands of #10 ranked Middle Tennessee Christian School. The Rockets (4-18, 2-6) could not keep up with the District 9A first place Cougars (14-3, 8-0), who have won six in row and eight out of the last 10 games versus the Rockets. "MTCS is a veteran tough team that went to the state last year," Forrest coach Randy Toombs said. "It's hard to fight their size and skill level at this moment."

Tuesday night's game against Santa Fe was one the Cornersville Lady Bulldogs wish they could have back. If the Lady Bulldogs, sporting just one District 11A loss, took care of business against Santa Fe it would have had a chance to play for first-place in a matchup with Richland looming on the horizon Thursday night. Unfortunately for Cornersville (8-6, 6-2), the Lady Wildcats (8-7, 5-3) weren't ready to give up on its own district title hopes and moved within one game of second place with a convincing 57-45 win over the Lady Bulldogs.