Forrest and Cascade met on opening night at Chapel Hill with the Champions coming from behind late to secure a four-point win and the two squads met again Tuesday night at Wartrace.

The result was another excruciating loss for Forrest as the Rockets had the lead again in the third quarter, only to see it slip away in a 72-62 setback.

“We are so close, we are just itching the surface, but in my opinion we just can’t keep making silly mistakes at crucial times,” Forrest coach Corey Bishop said. “These guys are going to have to be able to come together and fix those mistakes and we are going to work as hard as ever to get that done.”

The Carter brothers came up huge in the low post for the Champions with Justis tossing in a game-high 23 points and Steele adding 17 more.

Brandon Heath was also in double figures with 11 points for Cascade.

Forrest was led in the scoring column by Cameron Curtis with 16 points and Hunter Bennett had a big game beyond the three-point arc, nailing a game-high four long bombs to finish with 14 points.

Joel Burton and Andrew Timmons scored seven points apiece, Cole Villazon and Tayton Swift tallied five each, CJ Sanchez and Cole Perryman had three apiece, and Walker Herring had one field goal.

Forrest had a ton of energy as did the Champions and the longtime ex-district rivals battled the entire night with Cascade winning two important categories, turnovers and offensive rebounds.

“We are just not doing a fundamentally sound job on defense and rebounding and I would like to say that is our hallmark, but right now it’s not,” Bishop said. “We keep putting ourselves in the same hole of losing by 10 or 13 points and it’s our job to get that fixed.”

Forrest opened the game with a bang as CJ Sanchez and Cameron Curtis nailed back-to back 3-pointers to take an early 6-0 lead.

Cascade battled back, cutting the Forrest lead to four points at 11-7 midway through the period on a Lucas Clanton bucket before the Rockets came up with a Cole Villazon 3-pointer.

Forrest hung tough and took a 15-10 lead to period number two.

The Rockets opened up their biggest lead of the game at 23-15 midway through the second quarter on a Bennett basket before the Champions took control, outscoring the Rockets 12-2 the remainder of the first half to take a 27-25 lead at the break.

Villazon scored on a layup, tying the game to open the second half before Justis Carter scored four straight in the low post.

Back-to-back buckets by Sanchez and Curtis deadlocked the contest at 31-31 and a Steele Carter rebound and put-back put the Champs up by two points.

Bennett drilled a three-pointer to make it 34-33 and that was the last time Forrest led in the contest as the Carter boys combined for 10 points in the paint, spurring Cascade to a 45-41 lead at the end of the third quarter.

Justis Carter and Curtis traded buckets to open the final period and then Justis scored again on a rebound and put-back, followed by a big three-pointer by Heath to open up a seven-point lead at 50-43.

Bennett kept the Rockets in the game with a pair of treys to stay close at 52-49 before another Heath three-pointer put Cascade up by six points.

The two teams traded buckets with Cascade leading 57-51 when Bennett fouled out with 5:11 remaining in the contest.

The Rockets would not fold as they managed to slice the Cascade lead to three points on two occasions with the last one coming on a Curtis three-pointer to make it 62-59 with just over two minutes to play in the game.

From there Cascade (2-2) took control of the boards and the game, outscoring the Rockets 10-3 for the remainder of the contest and finish off the season sweep over Forrest (1-7).

“I feel like the fourth quarter is our biggest problem right now, we are having a big problem finishing,” Bishop said. “I don’t know if it’s a mental thing, a physical thing or a combination of who’s on the court and who’s not, but we have to figure that out as coaches and we are going to do that.”

Forrest 15 10 16 21-62

Cascade 10 17 18 27-72

Forrest (62): Cameron Curtis 16, Hunter Bennett 14, Joel Burton 7, Andrew Timmons 7, Cole Villazon 5, Tayton Swift 5, CJ Sanchez 3, Cole Perryman 3, Walker Herring 2.

Three-point goals (7): Bennett 4, Curtis, Villazon, Swift.

Free Throws (9-for-18): Perryman 3-for-4, Swift 2-for-4, Timmons 1-for-2, Curtis 1-for-2, Sanchez 1-for-2, Burton 1-for-1, Villazon 0-for-3.

Cascade (72): Justis Carter 23, Steele Carter 17, Brandon Heath 11, Izzy Betts 5, Chance Brown 5, Landon Lane 4, Lucas Clanton 4, Ethan Swan 3.

Three-point goals (2): Heath 2.

Free Throws (18-for-38): Heath 5-for-6, Lane 4-for-4, Steele Carter 3-for-8, Clanton 2-for-5, Justis Carter 1-for-2, Swan 1-for-1, Brown 1-for-4, Betts 1-for-4, Seth Countess 0-for-4.

Halftime Score: Cascade 27, Forrest 25.