NATCHEZ &045; A second-half meltdown had Jefferson County head coach Marcus Walton reaching a boiling point.

Unlike last year when his Tigers made a push late in the season, won the division tournament and advanced to the Big House, this year’s bunch dropped a 60-55 decision to Natchez High before a packed house at the NHS gym Friday heading into the final week of the regular season.

&uot;We haven’t gotten consistency the whole year,&uot; Walton said. &uot;There’s a lot of things we’re going to have to work at as a team if we plan on playing in late February. It’s just some indecisions. This time of year we should be fine-tuning, and we’re still trying to get things up to par.&uot;

The Bulldogs, on the other hand, can’t say the same after their pressure defense gave the Tigers problems down the stretch. The Bulldogs erased a five-point deficit at halftime and held the Tigers to just one field goal over a stretch of 8 1/2 minutes from midway in the third quarter to early in the fourth.

Tryon Wilson scored eight straight points for the Bulldogs, who used a bucket from C.J. Wright with 1:37 left in the third to take a 41-38 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Michael Chatman put in a layup off a steal to start the fourth quarter, and he added two more buckets late to up the Bulldogs’ lead to 49-40 with 5:53 left.

NHS head coach Mike Martin stayed with the pressure defense, and the Tigers couldn’t answer.

&uot;We went cold there for a minute,&uot; Walton said. &uot;He (Martin) changed his defense and went to a three-quarters, but that didn’t affect us as much as our cold shooting did. We still got good looks. We had a lot of unforced turnovers that shouldn’t have been. I take my hat off to Coach Martin. He has his teams prepared every time we play.&uot;

The Tigers got a bucket from Chris Carradine with 5:25 to end an 8-2 NHS run to start the quarter, and Josh Nichols hit a layup with 3:43 left that cut the lead to 52-44.

Chatman &045; who finished with 15 points &045; hit consecutive layups off fast-breaks following JC missed shots for a 57-44 lead with 2:10 left.

Wilson led the Bulldogs with 18 points. Nichols led Jefferson County with 21.

Ferriday 74, Crowville 67

FERRIDAY, La. &045; The only thing that stopped Ferriday’s Ladrian Davis from scoring more than the 43 points he finished with Friday night was &045; well, Ladrian Davis.

However, those 43 points he scored helped the Trojans get a win over the Lake Providence Panthers in a key District 4-2A matchup.

Ferriday (10-10, 3-3) put some distance between itself and Lake Providence (8-13, 2-5) for third place in the district standings.

&uot;It gave us an opportunity to get a game up on them,&uot; Trojans head coach James Davis said. &uot;It was a good game. Could’ve gone either way.&uot;

Actually, the Trojans are in third place and a game and a half ahead of the Panthers.

Ferriday jumped out to a 20-12 lead at the end of the first quarter and took a 34-24 lead at the break.

&uot;I thought we played well in the first half,&uot; Davis said. &uot;We lost Eric Crump inside to an ankle sprain. We hope to have him back Tuesday. They lost their shooter, so it evened out.&uot;

Lake Providence finally got its offense going in the third quarter and outscored Ferriday 20-16 to cut the lead to six going into the fourth quarter.

The Panthers took advantage of Davis spending much of that quarter on the bench in foul trouble.

&uot;Defensively, we played well. Rebounding is what hurt us,&uot; Davis said. &uot;They got a lot of second and third shots.&uot;

Both teams pretty much scored at will in the fourth quarter, but it was the Trojans who had a 24-23 advantage and held on for the win.

Robert Green led the Panthers with 24 points.

Vidalia 106, Crowville 54

VIDALIA, La. &045; It was hard to believe that the score at the end of the first quarter of this District 4-2A game was Vidalia 13, Crowville 11.

That would be as close it would get the rest of the game as Vidalia (12-3, 5-1) put the game out of reach with a 33-9 advantage in the second quarter.

The Vikings then put up 60 points in the second quarter to eclipse the century mark.

Rodney Washington led Vidalia with 35 points and Tony Hawkins had 19 points.

Dequincy Gordon led Crowville (9-17, 1-6) with 18 points.

Cathedral 43, Pelahatchie 28

NATCHEZ &045; Unable to put away a pesky Pelahatchie team in the first half, the Green Wave finally did so in the second half Friday night &045; specifically the third quarter.

Cathedral (7-16, 4-6) led Pelahatchie (1-17, 1-9) 14-7 after one quarter of play, but the Chiefs rallied in the second quarter to tie the score at 20-20 at halftime.

However, any chance of an upset by Pelahatchie ended in the third quarter as the Green Wave outscored the Chiefs 11-1 to take a 31-21 lead into the fourth quarter.

Matt Goss led Cathedral with 13 points and Jonathan Jackson had 12 points.

Hazlehurst 57, Wilkinson Co. 53

WOODVILLE &045; Any chance the Wildcats had of catching Jefferson County for third place in Region 7-3A ended Friday night as the Indians rallied in the fourth quarter to pull off the upset.

And that was after Wilkinson County (11-12, 7-5) had outscored Hazlehurst (9-15, 2-8) 26-5 in the third quarter to take a 38-31 lead into the fourth quarter.

Hazlehurst dominated the first half, especially the second quarter, where the Indians held the Wildcats to a mere two points and took a 26-12 halftime lead.

Bryant Spiller led the Wildcats with 18 points.

Tallulah 69, Block 55

TALLULAH, La. &045; Four Tallulah players scored in double figures as the Trojans pulled away from a pesky Bears team in the third quarter Friday night in a District 4-1A game.

Mikel Davis led Tallulah (17-9, 5-2) with a game-high 22 points and Darryl Nash added 15 points.

The Trojans led by just two at halftime, 29-27, but put the game away by outscoring Block (10-10, 1-5) 25-13 in the third quarter.

Jeremy Washington had 21 points and Demetrius Bowie had 20 points to lead the Bears.

Epps 65, Monterey 37

MONTEREY, La. &045; This District 3-B game was over early as the Panthers (17-10, 6-0) jumped out to a 24-1 lead over the Wolves (6-19, 0-7) at the end of the first quarter and never looked back.

Brad Henderson led Epps with 18 points and Kerick Mayers chipped in with 16 points.

Cody Wulfkuhle led Monterey with eight points.

The Wolves host Forest on Friday.