The Corey Bishop coaching era began with some high drama in Tuesday night’s Hall of Champions season opener versus longtime rival Cascade.

The Rockets fell behind big in the first half before mounting a third quarter comeback that erased a 12-point halftime deficit, but the undermanned Forrest squad could not hold on in the end and fell 54-50.

“It’s been a long time since we had an atmosphere and a crowd like that and we appreciate our fans more than anything,” the Forrest graduate Bishop said. “One of the sayings we go with in our program is nothing great is accomplished without enthusiasm.”

“So, we are going bring it every night, our team is going to bring it, the coaches are going to bring it, our fans are going to bring it, and we are trying to reestablish what Forrest basketball is.”

Cascade jumped out to an early 6-0 lead before a Cole Perryman layup got the Rockets on the board.

A Cameron Curtis bucket moments later cut the Champions’ lead to two points, but a 12-4 run by Cascade to end the first period put Forrest in a 20-8 hole.

Forrest held serve in the second quarter as both squads netted 10 points apiece and the Rockets trailed 30-18 at the half.

Bishop rallied the troops in the locker room, imploring some tighter defense and get some more offense going off some turnovers.

Cascade’s Steele Carter banged home a bucket in the low post for the Champions before Perryman buried a three-pointer to get things rolling for the Rockets.

Forrest began to tighten up the defensive pressure on Cascade and after Curtis hit one free throw, he stole the ball and raced in for a slam dunk.

As Cascade brought the ball down the floor, Curtis swiped the rock again and soared in for a two-handed slam dunk, making it a 32-26 contest.

After a Cascade timeout, CJ Sanchez came up with another steal and fed Curtis, who was fouled.

Curtis made one-of-two from the free throw line and Justis Carter matched the one charity shot for Cascade.

After the Carter free throw, Curtis was fouled again, this time attempting a three-pointer and he went to the line and buried all three charity shots to make a 33-30 contest.

Cascade threw up a brick on their next touch before Curtis scored on a driving layup to cut the lead to one point and then lightning struck for the third time when Curtis stole the ball and went in for the LeBron one-handed slam dunk, giving the Rockets their first lead of the game at 34-33 with 2:50 remaining in the third period.

Forrest stayed the aggressor, outscoring the Champions 8-4 for the remainder of the third period behind a pair of long bombs by Sanchez and two free throws by Connor Lewis.

The Rockets took a 42-37 lead to the final period and built the lead to eight points on an Andrew Timmons basket, forcing a Cascade timeout with 6:28 remaining in the contest.

The Champions fought back, scoring the next seven points to cut the Forrest lead to one point before Timmons sank two both ends of a one-and-one opportunity from the free line to make it a 48-45 contest with 2:02 left in the game.

A Cascade missed shot led to a Timmons layup to put the Rockets up by five points, but a couple of turnovers and some bad fouls led to a 6-0 run by Cascade run and Forrest called timeout with 36.6 seconds left.

“That’s on me as a coach,” Bishop said. “I have to do a better job of settling my guys down, but you could also say a little inexperience, we have got guys that are just now cracking the lineup and getting on the floor.”

“We are just trying to help those guys learn, it’s a learning process and we are trying to get better today to the end of February.”

The Rockets could not convert out of the stoppage and Seth Countess buried two crucial free throws with 27.1 seconds remaining in the game.

The Rockets tried to get off a game-tying three-pointer, but were unable to knock it down and the Champions went back to Wartrace with the hard-fought win.

“At halftime we decided to make some adjustments and start playing full court and we wanted to put pressure on those guys because we thought we had some guys that could pick those guys up at full court and play,” Bishop said. “That is going to be our mantra, we are going to pick you up from one baseline to the other and make it difficult and I thought we did that in the third quarter, it was just a little too late.”

The Rockets will be back in action on Monday when they host the Cornersville Bulldogs in an intra-county rivalry contest.

“Those guys gave me everything they had, their jerseys were soaked and wet,” Bishop said. “As a coaching staff we talk about one of our three core values is maximum effort and right there was a symbol of max effort.”

“I can remember a lot of games here the past few years that would have turned into blowouts, but we came back and got the lead, so I am very impressed and very proud of my guys.”

The Bulldogs lost their season opening Hall of Champions as they suffered a 74-50 loss to Culleoka Tuesday night.

Cascade 20 10 7 17-54

Forrest 8 10 24 8-50

Cascade (54): Steele Carter 14, Justis Carter 10, Chance Brown 9, Brandon Heath 9, Landon Lane 4, Seth Countess 3, Lucas Clanton 3, Ethan Swan 2.

Three-Point Goals (4): Brown, Heath, Clanton, Lane.

Free Throws (17-for-37): Justis Carter 4-for-11, Steele Carter 6-for-8, Heath 4-for-9, Countess 3-for-5, Lane 1-for-2, Brown 0-for-1, Swan 0-for-1.

Forrest (50): Cameron Curtis 21, Andrew Timmons 13, CJ Sanchez 6, Cole Perryman 6, Hunter Bennett 2, Connor Lewis 2.

Three-Point Goals (5): Sanchez 2, Curtis, Perryman, Timmons.

Free Throws (13-for-21): Curtis 8-for-11, Lewis 2-for-2, Timmons 2-for-4, Perryman 1-for-4.

Halftime Score: Cascade 30, Forrest 18.