WC tops PG

By

staff reports

FERRIDAY, La. &045; Enough with those zone defenses and slow-paced teams that lull you to sleep.

If Huntington’s Lady Hounds are on their game, it’s going to take a full-court press. They brought the pressure early against Franklin Academy in their district opener Monday night and jumped out to an early lead before taking a 54-34 win over the Lady Cougars.

And it helped. For a team going into the district opener against almost an unknown, setting the tempo early sure made everyone breathe a little easier.

&uot;Our press gets us going,&uot; Huntington head coach Penny Moak said. &uot;When it works, then our offense is going to work. In the third quarter we dropped out of the press and went into the halfcourt, and they got back in it. It’s like when we don’t press, we slow down too much.

&uot;I know Tensas will be the team to beat (in district), but I was worried about this team. Franklin won state in softball, so they’ve got athletes. They played hard the whole game, but we just had a good night. A lot of times with this group when we don’t know about the team, it gets a little mental with us.&uot;

The Lady Hounds (1-0, 9-8) used the press to build up the commanding lead in the first half and eventually control the game. Marie Miller hit a short jumper off a steal with 1:06 left in the second quarter, and Leslie Wagoner knocked down another jumper 30 seconds later for a 28-7 lead.

Kelly Reed’s two free throws with 15 seconds left for Franklin put the score at 28-9 at halftime. Reed scored all nine of the team’s points in the first half.

Newellton 53, Ferriday 49

NEWELLTON, La. &045; Ferriday (15-3) had some costly turnovers and couldn’t get many shots to drop and fell behind 14-8 at the end of the first quarter. The Lady Trojans, led by Jameca Garrison and Ashley Atkins, then turned up the defensive pressure and nearly held the Lady Bears scoreless in the second quarter.

Ferriday outscored Newellton 12-3 in that quarter and held a 20-17 halftime lead.

Garrison led Ferriday with 23 points and Atkins had 15.

&uot;If we had cut down on the turnovers, it wouldn’t have turned out this way,&uot; Abron said. &uot;We didn’t get going offensively until midway through the second quarter.&uot;

WCCA 42, Lamar Christian 19

WOODVILLE &045; WCCA (5-10, 4-3) took a 14-2 lead at the end of the first quarter and then stretched its lead to 28-9 at halftime. Benton led the Lady Rams with 16 points and Ashley had 14.

Trinity Episcopal 52, Centreville 51

NATCHEZ &045; Trinity (11-6, 3-2) took a 32-24 lead into halftime, but an improving Centreville team led by Brittany Boatner, Ash Brashier and Kelly Simpson, charged back in the second half. The Lady Tigers cut the lead to five going into the fourth quarter, when their rally fell a little short.

Franklin Parish 61, Vidalia 32

VIDALIA, La. &045; Franklin Parish led 28-17 at halftime at put the game away by outscoring Vidalia (1-15) 17-6 in the third quarter. Shakinley Mitchell led Vidalia with 12 points.

Wilkinson County 56, Port Gibson 55

PORT GIBSON &045; Wilkinson led most of the way, but a 19-point final quarter by the Lady Blue Waves almost gave Port Gibson the win.