The Forrest Rockets either led or were tied with Richland during the first three quarters of Friday night's non-conference match-up before the Raiders got the best of Chapel Hill in the fourth quarter to win 43-38.

"I am proud of the way we fought and we will never make any excuses," said FHS head coach Wes Hobbs. "I though it was two evenly matched teams and they beat us tonight, but I think we will learn from this and be better tomorrow."

The Rockets (2-3) trailed early 4-0 before Will Edmondson drained three consecutive treys, putting FHS up 9-6.

Scarce scores

Forrest would not score in the final three minutes of the first quarter, while Richland's Jacob Farrar had the only basket for the Raiders in the same timeframe, pulling his squad to within one point of the Rockets at 9-8 after the first eight minutes.

A Gregg Howell basket at the 5:03 mark of the second period edged Richland in front 16-13, but the Rockets came back on a Lucas Pruitt bucket in the paint, a Caleb Hogan three-bomb, and a Blake Leonard post basket to take a 20-16 lead.

Farrar and Donnie Gavin scored for the Raiders, knotting the contest at 20, but Edmondson scored and Ty Hoeft made the front end of a one and one just as the second quarter ended to put the Rockets up 23-20 with one half of basketball remaining.

Raider surge

Forrest led for much of the third quarter before the Raiders surged in front late 29-28 on a Hayden Morris field goal before Edmondson came through again, drilling his fourth trey of the night, giving the Rockets a 31-29 lead, entering the final eight minutes.

Lucas Pruitt knocked down a rebound early in the quarter and Hoeft followed moments later with two successful free throws to give Forrest their biggest lead of the game at 35-29 with just over six minutes to play.

After a timeout at the 6:31 mark of the final stanza, the momentum turned in favor of the Raiders, beginning with a rare four-point play by Carter Schmitt, followed by a three-bomb by Chandler Rose, pushing Richland in front 36-35.

Leonard re-tied the game with a free throw, but Farrar put the Raiders back up by two points with a bucket in the paint.

Hoeft hit one of two foul shots with 2:01 to play in the contest, but Gavin nailed two charity shots at the one minute mark, making it 40-37.

Jacob Daughrity made a single charity shot to cut the lead to two points with 45.7 seconds remaining in the game, but Farrar sealed the deal when he calmly drained two free throws with 34.1 ticks left.

Foul shots

Hoeft would hit one charity toss late to finish up the scoring in the five-point loss for the Rockets, who play East Hickman on Friday and Cascade on Saturday at the Forrest Thanksgiving Tournament in Chapel Hill.

Edmondson led the Rockets in the scoring column with 14 points (four treys), while Lucas Pruitt added eight; Leonard and Hogan scored three points each, and Jesse Pruitt, Daughrity, and Jake Townsend all a picked up a deuce.