Forrest squads clinch berths to region tournament

District 9-A completed their regular season menu before many mid-state leagues that were plagued with weather related postponements and on Friday and Saturday night at Huntland, post-season first round fare was served.

Both Forrest squads feasted versus their opening round foes, clinching at least one round of dessert at next week's Region 5-A Tournament in their backyard at Community.

The top seeded Forrest Rockets were up by three touchdowns 21-0 at the end of the first quarter en-route to a 79-23 blowout win over cellar dwelling F.C. Boyd.

It was not as easy for the Lady Rockets, still minus Megan Miller and Hannah Phifer, but a big defensive stand in the second quarter proved to be the difference as Coach Jeremy Jean's team would eventually run away and hide from a determined Community Viqueen squad 62-33.

In three games this season versus F.C. Boyd, Forrest head coach Davy McClaran's sixth ranked Rockets have outscored the hapless Broncos 240-87 and on Saturday night, everyone on the roster scored for FHS.

Justin McCord led the way with 18 points (2 treys), Mark Pope had 11 (3 treys), Zach Horvath netted 10, Kyle Gugger scored 9 (1 trey), and Tyler Rumley finished with 7 points (1 trey).

Corey Bishop, Dane Leonard (1 trey), Lucas Pruitt, and Zach Ray all ended up with 4 points, Colby Anglin scored 3, Taylor Gentry and Dakota Zimmerman had 2 points apiece and Jacob Daughrity rounded out the scoring with a single tally.

Forrest drew host Huntland as their second round opponent on Tuesday after the Hornets bested Moore County 38-32.

On Friday, the Lady Rockets jumped out to an 8-0 lead, beginning with back-to-back three-pointers by Anna Curtner and Candace Daughrity before Community stormed back to cut the lead to 10-7.

A late three-bomb by Maegen Gower made it 13-7, but Hannah Busby's buzzer beater made it a 13-9 ballgame after the first eight minutes.

Forrest led 17-13 early in the second period before they reeled off nine straight points to double up the Viqueens at 26-13.

Christina Curtner had seven points in the rally, including four foul shots and a three-pointer and Anna Curtner notched the other two points on free throws

Forrest took a 28-17 lead into the third period and improved the margin to 33-19 early on a three-pointer by Alyson Patton and another basket by Daughrity, but Community mounted one last charge and cut the lead to ten points at 35-25.

Christina Curtner took over the ballgame from there, scoring four points, going to the floor to earn a tie-up, and stealing the ball on back-to-back possessions with the second steal leading to a beautiful dish to her triplet sister Anna that swelled the Lady Rockets' lead to eighteen points at 43-25 with 1:45 remaining in the period.

Community was in a bad spot and it just got worse as Kim Rochester scored on the Lady Rockets' first touch of the final quarter.

Patton made one of two from the line after an offensive foul call on Community, Gower scored on a rebound and put-back after a Viqueen brick, and Tayler Andrews put the nail in the Community coffin moments later when she drained two foul shots to make it a 50-25 ballgame.

The Viqueens would never recover and their season ended with the twenty-nine point loss.

The Lady Rockets had a solid night from the free line, going 21-27 from the charity stripe.

Anna Curtner led Forrest in scoring with 15 points, Christina Curtner was next with 13 points (6-6 FT's), Gower finished with 8 points, and Daughrity had another nice game with 7 points.

Rochester netted 6 points from in the paint, Andrews had all five of her points from the foul stripe (5-6), and Patton and Jillian Blanchett both ended up with 4 points apiece.

Community's Katie Leverette led all scorers with 19 points.

Forrest takes on Eagleville in round two after District 9-A Coach of the Year Chris Lynch's Lady Eagles eliminated MTCS 40-38 in overtime.