ST. JOSEPH, La. &8212; It was the showdown people in St. Joseph have been anticipating since the beginning of the season and this game involved teams ranked in the top five in their respective classifications in the MPSA.

The Adams Christian Lady Rebels, ranked No. 4 in Class AA, took a 13-2 record to Tensas Academy&8217;s gym to take on the Tensas Lady Chiefs, ranked No. 4 in Class A and sporting a 13-3 record. The only thing was would this game live up to the hype?

It could have gone either way. But in the end, Kaitlyn Emfinger&8217;s long three-pointer with one second left gave the Lady Chiefs a 53-50 win over the Lady Rebels Monday night.

&8220;We got the ball inbounds with six seconds left. Kaitlyn made a three-pointer from two feet (beyond) the three-point line,&8221; Lady Chiefs head coach Chuck Bauerle said. &8220;Our girls and ACCS&8217;s girls played a good game. It was a tough game.

&8220;They got down a little bit. They were down two. But we hit some key shots.&8221;

Emfinger finished with 10 points, but it will be her three-pointer at the end of the game that they&8217;ll be talking about for quite some time.

The biggest lead of the game belonged to Tensas (14-3) at the end of the first quarter when the Lady Chiefs had an 18-11 lead. The Lady Rebels could get no bigger than a three-point lead the entire game, and that wasn&8217;t until the third quarter.

&8220;It was a heartbreaker,&8221; Lady Rebels head coach John Gray said. &8220;We&8217;ve got to congratulate Tensas. They&8217;re a good ball club. We&8217;ve just got to get better. We just don&8217;t have the energy level like we should have. Not to take anything away from Tensas.&8221;

Katie Ann Swinny led the Lady Rebels (13-3) with 16 points. Ariana DeLaSalle, Brittany Gamberi and Mattie Geoghegan had 10 points each.

Tensas led by five at halftime, 29-24, but ACCS scored the first six points of the third quarter to take a one-point lead. That lead, however wouldn&8217;t last long as the Lady Chiefs outscored the Lady Rebels 13-8 the rest of the quarter to take a 42-38 lead into the fourth quarter.

The third quarter ended with another long three-pointer, this one by Megan Bauerle, who finished with 13 points. Tabitha Howard led Tensas with a game-high 18 points.

&8220;Pretty much a half-court game the whole game,&8221; coach Bauerle said. &8220;We played a little 2-1-2 zone or 2-3 zone. We pretty much played man defense most of the game. They played a lot of man and a little matchup zone. No one fouled out.

Said Bauerle of Howard, &8220;She&8217;s pretty much playing inside for us this year. I don&8217;t know how many assists Megan and Kaitlyn had, but we were able to find her open quite a bit inside tonight.&8221;

One of things that Bauerle noted that surprised him was that Whitney Alford didn&8217;t score a point in the entire second half and finished with nine points for the game.

Free throws were also key in determining the winner of this game. Adams Christian made just four of 13 free throws for the game. Tensas made four of six from the line in the fourth quarter to keep the home team in the game.

&8220;We&8217;ve got to do better at the free-throw line,&8221; Gray said. &8220;They played hard and I&8217;m proud of them. But you&8217;ve got to make free throws to beat the tams that are as good as you are.&8221;

Even though the Lady Rebels made 23 field goals to 20 for Tensas, the Lady Chiefs connected on seven three-pointers, which included the two amazing buzzer-beaters.

&8220;Always a good team to play,&8221; Bauerle said of the Lady Rebels. &8220;They&8217;re a really good ball club. We played hard. They hung in there. We feel fortunate to come out on top of this one.&8221;

Ferriday 51, Excelsior Christian 38

MONROE, La. &8212; Playing in only her third game of the season, senior point guard Jameca Garrison played like a leader, scoring 19 points and freshman center Jasmine Upchurch had 10 points to lead the Lady Trojans to win over a pesky Lady Jaguars team.

Ferriday (12-1) looked like it was on its way to putting this game away early. The Lady Trojans took what seemed to be a commanding 14-6 lead into the second quarter. But Excelsior Christian would not go away quite so easily.

The Lady Jaguars actually outscored the Lady Trojans 12-7 in the second quarter and trailed by just three points, 21-18, at halftime.

But Ferriday&8217;s offense got going again in the second half and the defense picked up its intensity in the fourth quarter. The Lady Trojans scored 15 points in the third quarter, yet led by just five points heading into the fourth quarter.

Ferriday finally put the game away with a 15-7 advantage in the fourth quarter.

Jasmine Darwin led Excelsior Christian with 15 points, but was the only player on her team that scored more than five points.

Franklin County 48, South Pike 40

SUMMIT &8212; Despite being held nine points under her season average, Victoria Hunt had a solid performance for the Lady Bulldogs with a double-double and the defense came up huge in the fourth quarter.

Last Friday night&8217;s game was one involving two of the best teams in the new Region 7-3A and it surely didn&8217;t disappoint.

Victoria Hunt finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds to lead Franklin County, which remained undefeated at 3-0 in 7-3A and 6-0 overall. Shareka Hunt chipped in with 14 points for the Lady Bulldogs.

Franklin County&8217;s defense did a good job against the top two scorers for South Pike, Dominique Brumfield and T&8217;Keya Felder. Brumfield, who was averaging 12.2 points a game, did not score a point the entire game, and Felder, who was averaging 9.9 point a game, was held to just two points.

That same defense proved to be turning point in the ball game as the Lady Bulldogs outscored South Pike 15-7 in the fourth quarter to escape with the win &8212; this after the Lady Eagles had outscored the Lady Bulldogs 19-12 in the third quarter to tie the score at 33-33.

Bowling Green 69, Centreville 46

FRANKLINTON, La. &8212; A pair of 22-point quarters proved to be huge and five Lady Buccaneer players scored at least nine points to lead them to the win over the Lady Tigers in a District 4-AA game last Saturday night.

Kayla Colton led Bowling Green with 14 points, Megan Dykes had 13 points and Courtney Bonds added 10 points. Brittany Boatner led Centreville (1-3, 4-8) with a game-high 18 points and Amber Addington had 15 points.

But despite the efforts of Boatner and Addington, the first and third quarters proved to be too much as Bowling Green took a 22-10 lead after one quarter of play and then outscored Centreville 22-7 in the third quarter to turn a close game at halftime into a 57-34 lead going into the fourth quarter.

Brookhaven Academy 64, Centreville 33

CENTREVILLE &8212; With the game out of reach in the second half, Lady Cougars head coach Barry Gray went to his bench to give his reserves some playing time in this District 4-AA game last Friday night.

Twelve players ended up in the scoring column for Brookhaven Academy (3-1 in 4-AA), led by Emily Langley with 16 points and Betsy Lynch with 12 points. Boatner led Centreville with 15 points.