Ferriday — The Ferriday High School Trojans had a hard time breaking Winnfield Senior High School’s defense without a true point guard, as they fell to the Tigers 67-50 on Senior Night.

Seniors William Scott, DaJohn Mitchell, Adrian Wiggins and Marlon Jackson were honored before the start of the game. And Mitchell scored 12 points while the other seniors tallied two points apiece.

Shannon Morales led the Trojans (6-17) with 14 points.

Evan Smith scored 31 points for Winnfield, which was powered by solid defense.

Trojans assistant coach George Barnes said they didn’t handle the ball well against Winnfield.

“We’re young, and not making excuses, but we don’t have a point guard, and we don’t have that leadership,” he said. “The biggest thing is mental toughness. When things go bad, we don’t keep fighting.”

The game started off close as Winnfield took a 6-4 lead on a spin move reverse layup plus the foul by Chris Ellis at the 5:34 mark. Ferriday would tie the game at 10 with a hook shot by Morales in the lane.

The Trojans had a hard time breaking the Tigers’ full-court pressure as Winnfield went on an 11-0 run to end the first quarter 21-10.

The Tigers doubled that lead in the second quarter when they went on a 14-2 run at the 1:24 mark that was capped off by a fast break layup by Smith before the Trojans called a timeout.

Now down 40-17, Ferriday was only able to score once more before halftime to go into the locker room down 40-19.

The third quarter didn’t show much promise for the Trojans as they found themselves down by as much as 30 points on a 19-11 run by Winnfield, 59-30.

Ferriday didn’t end the game without a fight in the fourth quarter as it cut the lead to 17 points, but the damage had already been done as the Trojans fell 67-50.

Though the Trojans lost a tough game, Barnes said they can’t dwell on the loss.

“We just have to forget this one because we have to turn around and play (today),” he said. The Trojans ply Jonesboro-Hodge High School at 6:30 p.m. today.

Ferriday girls 64, Winnfield 53

The Lady Trojans (5-2) bounced back from their loss to Sterlington High School Saturday with a 64-53 win against Winnfield Tuesday night.

Jada Griggs put up 24 points while D’Asia Mitchell added 18 points in the win on Senior Night. Senior ShaKeria Kelly tallied eight points.

The Lady Trojans got off to a good start as they went up 18-8 after the first quarter on Mitchell’s eight-point performance featuring two three-pointers.

But Winnfield got things going in the second half as it outscored Ferriday 22-20 and went into the locker room down just 38-30.

A low scoring third quarter by both teams kept the score nine points apart at 45-38 before Ferriday held on to the lead in the final quarter despite the Lady Tigers full-court defensive pressure to take the 64-53 win.

The Lady Trojans play against Jonesboro-Hodge at 5 p.m. today.