FERRIDAY, La. &045; Don’t go filling out your bracket for the district tournament yet. Huntington’s Lady Hounds still have something to say about that.

The Lady Hounds made their pitch for the No. 2 seed in the District 7-A tournament, although they still need some help to get that spot in next month’s tournament that comes accompanied with an automatic berth to the South State tournament.

But the Lady Hounds’ 34-31 win over rival Trinity took plenty of pressure off them.

&uot;We only have one more game to go, and Trinity has three more,&uot; Huntington head coach Penny Moak said. &uot;They’ve got to play Tensas, Amite and WCCA. The pressure is kind of off of us. We play Ben’s Ford there, and that’s not going to be easy. It’s not over yet, but it really helped tonight.&uot;

The Lady Hounds (12-11, 5-4) are still two losses behind the Lady Saints, who now need to beat Tensas Academy next week and get some help to get a shot at that No. 1 spot. The Lady Saints (9-10, 5-2) had a shot to force regulation when Mallory Archer fired a 3-point attempt just before the buzzer, but it didn’t fall.

Now they host WCCA Friday with another shot to claim the No. 2 spot.

&uot;I’ve got to hand it to them &045; they did a good job,&uot; Trinity head coach Melanie Hall said. &uot;Hopefully we’ll rebound from it. I believe in these kids, and I look for them to do what it takes. Right now it’s in our hands. I just believe in my kids. We’ll have to go back and work harder.&uot;

Give credit to the Lady Hounds, who never strayed from their man-to-man defense and got some key stops when they needed them. Trinity got a 3-pointer from Archer with 21 seconds left that cut the lead to one, but the Lady Hounds quickly turned around and fired it down the floor.

That’s when Jessi Moak layed it in for two points for the three-point lead.

Her bucket capped a late rally after the Lady Saints took a 27-25 lead with 4:38 left when Sierra Massey hit a 3-pointer.

&uot;It’s a good thing we got good defense,&uot; Penny Moak said. &uot;Our shots weren’t falling in the first half. I kept telling them when the shots are falling, we could do it. Whitney Bradford hit a 3-pointer, and Emily Anders kind of got on a roll. That kind of helped everybody else.

&uot;Emily was kind of nervous before the game and told me she was. They were kind of leaving her side open, and I told her she had to step up.&uot;

The Lady Saints got that lead thanks to a flurry of scoring starting at the end of the third quarter to get back in the game. Huntington had a 24-16 lead midway through until the Lady Saints got a bucket from Massey and a 3-pointer from Archer to go into the fourth quarter trailing 24-21.

That first bucket from Massey, however, was the first bucket for the Lady Saints of the second half after over five minutes have gone off the clock and Huntington put up six points. The Lady Saints also went without a field goal in the final 5 1/2 minutes of the first half after they took a 13-7 lead.

&uot;We hurt ourselves,&uot; Hall said. &uot;We really did. We made mistakes, and they capitalized on them. We hurt ourselves, and that was disappointing. We were playing so well. They (Huntington) have done a little bit of both (zone and man), so I really wasn’t surprised.&uot;

The defensive effort helped the Lady Hounds get a sizeable lead as they kept Archer scoreless in the second quarter and nearly all of the third. Jessi Moak stayed on Archer in the man defense, and Archer had five points by the end of the third quarter.

Archer finished with a team-high 11 points.

&uot;Jessi Moak did a great job on Mallory,&uot; Penny Moak said. &uot;She only had two points at halftime, and that’s really good. That was one of the big things. Our goal was to keep her out of double digits, and we were close. She had 11, which is still pretty good. In the press we wanted to keep it out of Sierra’s hands. Whoever had it, we wanted to keep it out of the other one’s hands.&uot;

Bradford hit a 3-pointer right at the end of the half, and Anders tossed in a bucket with six seconds left for an 18-16 lead at the break. Anders got the first score of the second half before Erin Hedrick &045; who scored a game-high 13 points &045; scored for a 22-16 lead.

Amber McGlothin’s basket with 3:51 left gave Huntington its 24-16 lead.