After a big opening night blowout win at Columbia Academy, the Forrest Lady Rockets took to the home court Saturday night in a Hall of Champions match-up versus Wayne County and it was the Lady Wildcats who prevailed 53-46.

It was the fourth consecutive loss by Forrest to Wayne County and the Lady Rockets have dropped six out of the last 10 to the Lady Cats.

Irritation

Forrest head coach Jeremy Jean was not happy after the loss, saying, "It boils down to who wants to be here, whether it's a Saturday night or what it is, they have to go home and reflect on why they are here. If they are not here to win games, they can go ahead and go home."

It was as usual when these two teams meet, a close physical back-and-forth battle with high intensity until the end.

Forrest freshman Caitlyn Yost can attest to the physicality in the ballgame as she attempted 16 free throws in the contest, matching the entire number of charity shots taken by the Lady Cats.

Yost would make 10 out the 16 foul shots as she scored a game-high 21 points.

Fighting back

Wayne County jumped out to an early 7-2 lead before a Hannah Evans 3-pointer righted the ship for Forrest.

Evans would eventually cut the lead to one point at 11-10 with a free throw with 1:46 remaining in the first quarter and that would be the margin at the end of the stanza as Jessie Ray and Yost traded buckets down the stretch.

Amanda Patterson drained a three-bomb on Forrest's first possession of the second quarter, putting the Lady Rockets in front 15-13.

The lead would seesaw back and forth during the stanza with the Lady Cats edging back in front by one point at the end of the first half, 25-24.

Lady Wildcats roar

Two early turnovers by the Lady Rockets to begin the second half paved the way for Wayne County as they began to surge in front, winning the third quarter 16-8 to take a 41-32 lead, entering the final eight minutes.

Yost made one of two from the line to begin the fourth quarter and after a Lady Cats' miscue with the ball, Patterson went downtown again to slice the lead to five points at 41-36.

Ray scored in the low post for Wayne County and with just under five minutes to play in the contest, Patterson threw down another missile to cut the visitors' lead to four points at 43-39.

Cassie Maris matched Patterson's three-point effort, extending the lead back to seven points at 46-39 and from there, Wayne County put the game away to take the win.

Gambling

"I think we gambled too much on defense tonight, because we don't want to play defense," said Jean. "We would rather go for the steal and get the easy layup instead of playing defense."

Evans ended up with 11 points, Patterson had the three treys for nine points, Hailey Collins and Sierra Waggoner netted a deuce apiece, and Savannah Brothers had a single marker.

"Patterson and Collins came off the bench and played great and that is what we need is somebody to step up and make a shot," said Jean. "We played pretty good with those last five at the end."

Ray led the Wayne County offense with a 15-point effort, while Haley Burke scored 10, Heather Franks added eight, Sam Skelton and Maris scored a half dozen apiece, Kelli Griggs had five, and Ann Marie Young rounded out the scoring with three points.