RAYVILLE &045; A tough final day at the Rayville tournament may have been more of a learning tool than anything for the Ferriday Trojans.

Games against Excelsior Christian and Wossman both went against the Trojans, who head into the Christmas break now losers of three of their last five games. Instead of moping, the Trojans can take a little lesson from both games heading into next week’s Sicily Island tournament.

&uot;They’re good, really good &045; especially Excelsior,&uot; Ferriday head coach James Davis said. &uot;They’re a Class C school, but they’re playing 5A ball. They’ve got one guy who is 6-2, but he can play and is just a 10th-grader. We didn’t match up with either team, but they gave us an opportunity to see what they need to do in order to compete at the next level by playing good competition.

&uot;Basically, that’s what I really wanted to see. You’ve got to be able to put in the work in order to be satisfied at the end. You can’t be satisfied with beating teams in our area.&uot;

The Trojans struggled early in both games Thursday, losing to Wossman 62-49 after dropping a 58-43 loss to Excelsior in the afternoon game. Against Wossman, the Wildcats were solid in the first three quarters to build up a sizeable lead.

Wossman led 15-8 after the first quarter, 35-21 at half and 53-25 heading into the fourth quarter. There the Trojans outscored them 24-9.

Wossman went inside to Cardia Jackson, who finished with 23 points as the Trojans went with a zone defense early before switching to a man. Dominique Myles and Antonio Burns led Ferriday with 14 apiece.

Against Excelsior, the Trojans struggled in the second quarter as the Jaguars led 16-12 at the end of the first but used a 15-6 run in the second to lead 31-18 at half. The Jaguars then held a 14-11 edge in the third to lead 44-29 heading into the fourth quarter.