For the second straight year, Creek Wood survived an upset bid by the Forrest Lady Rockets, as the undefeated Lady Red Hawks (6-0) defeated FHS 52-45 on Saturday afternoon at the Forrest Thanksgiving Tournament.

After taking a 23-17 lead into halftime, Creek Wood opened up a 42-32 advantage early in the fourth quarter before the Lady Rockets (4-2) came storming back and tied the game at 42-42 with 3:55 left.

Flying away

The Lady Red Hawks, however, picked up their play down the stretch and outscored Forrest 10-3 the rest of the way to take home the seven-point victory.

Although Creek Wood shot only 38 percent (21-of-56) from the field and knocked down a mere 2-of-16 three-point attempts, the Lady Red Hawks committed just 12 turnovers, outrebounded FHS 30-24, and held a 18-7 edge on the offensive glass.

Vanderbilt signee Rachel Bell led Creek Wood with 20 points, nine rebounds, and five steals, while McKenzie Broadway tallied eight points. Leah Grubb also added seven points for the Lady Red Hawks and Brianna Spencer notched six points.

Bolstered by a 9-of-13 shooting performance from freshman forward Caitlyn Yost, the Lady Rockets shot 41 percent (16-of-39) from the field overall, which included a 5-of-15 effort from three-point range, but had trouble handling Creek Wood's full court press at times and committed 22 turnovers.

Too many turnovers

"Twenty-two turnovers and not even trying to block anyone out lost that game for us," said Forrest coach Jeremy Jean. "I think we weren't ready to play at the start of the game. Our first shot defense was good, but we can't give up second and third chances and beat anybody. The second half effort was great, but we've got to play like that the whole game."

Yost spearheaded Forrest's second half comeback by pouring in 18 of her game high 21 points over the final two quarters to go along with five rebounds and four steals. Sierra Waggoner followed Yost with nine points, while Savannah Brothers added eight points. Hannah Evans chipped in four points for the Lady Rockets as well and Amanda Patterson had three points.

The Lady Red Hawks kept FHS' offensive attack under wraps early on and built an 8-3 lead in the first quarter behind six points from Bell.

Yost converted a three-point play at the start of the second quarter to narrow the gap to 8-6, before Creek Wood rattled off seven straight points to open up a 15-6 advantage.

After the Lady Rockets cut the deficit to 15-10 on baskets by Waggoner and Brothers, the Lady Red Hawks responded with a 6-2 spurt to push their lead to 21-12 midway through the second period.

Closing gap

Forrest outscored Creek Wood 5-2 over the final 3:23 of the first half with the help of four points from Waggoner to close the gap to 23-17 at the break before Yost hit a layup at the start of the third quarter to make it 23-19.

The Lady Red Hawks ripped off seven straight points to stretch their lead to 30-19, but Yost singlehandedly outscored Creek Wood 11-6 over the next 5:15 to slice the deficit to 36-30 late in the third period.

After the Lady Red Hawks notched six of the next eight points to forge a 42-32 advantage early in the fourth quarter, the Lady Rockets put together a 10-0 run on the strength of five points from Yost and a Brothers trey to knot the game at 42-42 with 3:55 left.

Creek Wood, however, kept their poise during crunch time and outscored Forrest 10-0 over the next three and a half minutes to claim a 52-42 lead before Patterson drained a three in the waning moments of the contest for the 52-45 final.