Forrest had a chance to pick up a win Thursday night at Chapel Hill as they took on Moore County, which was coming off four straight losses, but the Rockets could not produce enough offense and had too many turnovers in a 56-45 loss.

“I thought tonight was one of our best defensive efforts of the year, I thought we had guys fighting and working hard and those things are going to pay off as we go on and I think these guys know it,” Forrest coach Corey Bishop said. “I think they are buying in more and more every day and it’s my job to help them get there and as long as they bring that attitude, we will be extremely fine.”

It was the ninth consecutive loss for the Rockets (1-13), who were playing without top scorer Cameron Curtis due to a two-game in-team suspension because of technical fouls.

“It didn’t help not having Cameron from a scoring perspective, but the guys who were in there fought extremely hard and I’m extremely proud of them,” Bishop said. “Cameron will be back in the next game or so, we are excited to get him back, but like I said the guys who were in there did a fantastic job.”

Cole Perryman had a solid game for the Rockets with a team-high 14 points, a 4-for-6 effort from the free throw line, and a pair of 3-pointers.

Andrew Timmons was also in double figures with 10 points, Joel Burton had six, Hunter Bennett ended up with five, Cole Villazon and Spencer McCown four, and Walker Herring had a deuce.

Moore County’s Brayden Cashion led all scorers in the game with 17 points, banged home three 3-pointers, and made 6-of-7 free throws in the fourth quarter.

Perryman opened the scoring for Forrest and that was the only time in the game that Rockets led as Moore County took a 16-10 lead after the first period.

Forrest trailed by as many as nine points late in the second period before mounting a comeback.

Timmons sank two free throws to make it a 23-16 contest and Perryman banged home a 3-pointer to cut the Moore County lead to four points.

An Andrew Copeland free throw for Moore County and one charity shot by Burton on the last possession of the first half made it a 24-20 contest at the break.

Moore County surged ahead to begin the second half, scoring seven points in row to take an 11-point lead and Forrest called timeout with 5:20 remaining in the third period.

The Rockets hung in, outscoring the Raiders 10-6 the remainder of the period and went to the fourth quarter, trailing 37-30.

Burton scored in the low post to start the final period and with just over five minutes to play in the game, Timmons hit the front end of a one-and-one opportunity from the free throw line to cap off a 5-1 mini-run and pull the Rockets to within three points at 38-35.

That would be as close as they would get as the Raiders (6-8) outscored Forrest 18-10 the rest of the way to secure the 11-point victory.

“I think right now we are on the brink of getting some momentum and confidence,” Bishop said. “We played a really good game against defending state champion Columbia Academy and we played an extremely good game here.”

“Missing nine free throws and 13 layups is 35 points, if we could have gotten those 35 points on the board the final score could have been 80-56, so we are gonna keep working and as long as we are getting those opportunities they will start to fall and we have got the confidence and will keep working hard.”

Villazon picked up a technical foul late in the fourth quarter and will serve a two-game suspension.

Moore County 16 8 13 19-56

Forrest 10 10 10 15-45

Moore County (56): Brayden Cashion 17, Riley Holman 7, Dylan Scruggs 7, Andrew Copeland 7, Colton Bateman 5, Blake Woosley 5, Ben Fletcher 4, Cayden Smith 4.

Three-point goals (5): Cashion 3, Holman, Copeland.

Free Throws (21-for-25): Cashion 6-for-7, Holman 4-for-4, Scruggs 3-for-4, Bateman 3-for-3, Woosley 3-for-3, Copeland 2-for-4.

Forrest (45): Cole Perryman 14, Andrew Timmons 10, Joel Burton 6, Hunter Bennett 5, Cole Villazon 4, Spencer McCown 4, Walker Herring 2.

Three-point goals (3): Perryman 2, Bennett.

Free Throws (18-for-27): Burton 4-for-9, Timmons 4-for-6, Perryman 4-for-6, Villazon 2-for-2, McCown 2-for-2, Bennett 2-for-2.

Halftime Score: Moore County 24, Forrest 20.