Wilkinson County will see a familiar foe today in the MPSA District 6-A Tournament.

The Lady Rams defeated Prentiss Christian 47-40 in first round of the MPSA District 6-A Tournament, which WCCA is hosting, and the win gave the third-seeded Lady Rams (9-6) an automatic berth in the Class A South Central State Tournament at Prentiss Christian School next week.

Tonight, they have a tough task in front of them as they will face No. 2 seed Ben&8217;s Ford at 7 p.m.

&8220;We split with them. We won at our place, and they won at their place,&8221; Lady Rams head coach Paul Hayles said. &8220;We know we can play with them. The loss at Ben&8217;s Ford was a good thing for us, if you ever want to call a loss a good thing. It got us focused, and we&8217;ve been on a good streak ever since then.&8221;

The Lady Rams accomplished their first objective &8212; having a winning season for the first time in several seasons. Now that they&8217;ve won their first game of the district tournament, they&8217;re ready for loftier goals.

A key tonight will be limiting turnovers if Wilkinson County wants to advance to the title game.

&8220;They play good defense, so we&8217;ve got to be extremely careful with the basketball,&8221; Hayles said. &8220;If we can play a half-court game, that ups our chances of winning. We&8217;ve got to make it an inside game. Try to get the inside going first.&8221;

And their inside game has been done by committee.

&8220;We rotate personnel &8212; Tara O&8217;Leary, Mallory Bennett, Erin Whitaker, Kate Wilkerson, Lacy Fontenot and Ali Fontenot,&8221; Hayles said. &8220;They&8217;ve all been getting equal minutes. They all have certain attributes which help our team.&8221;

The Lady Rams must also contain Amantha Shelton, who was the leading scorer in both games, and Kallee Pittman. Both are strong free-throw shooters.

&8220;Shelton was a 75 percent free-throw shooter against us, and Pittman was a 70 percent free-throw shooter in their two games against us,&8221; Hayles said.

The WCCA Rams don&8217;t have to play until today at 8:30 p.m. because they were the No. 2 seed, giving them a first-round bye and an automatic berth in Class A South Central State before even playing a game.

&8220;The thing that concerns me the most is that we haven&8217;t played a game since Tuesday of last week,&8221; Rams head coach Ray Olive said. &8220;I&8217;ve instilled in the boys that we face what&8217;s in front of us. The fact that they&8217;ve had a week and a half of practice, they&8217;re not concerned about South (Central) State. One of our goals was to win district. Our next goal is not attainable until this one&8217;s done.&8221;

Tonight&8217;s opponent &8212; No. 3 seed Ben&8217;s Ford &8212; disposed on Union Academy 70-27 in a first-round game Tuesday night and ended Lamar Christian&8217;s chances of going undefeated in district play at the end of the regular season.

&8220;They play a tough zone defense. I know they&8217;ll double up on Joseph Landry, our big guy inside,&8221; Olive said. &8220;T-Ray Deville is in his first year playing basketball. He&8217;s the other low post, so he&8217;ll have to step up. Wing player Eli Ashley has been the backbone of our defense and is the team leader. I look for him to step up and have a good offensive game.

&8220;We&8217;ll put him on who there best offensive threat is. Tommy Johnson is our outside threat. He consistently scores 12-14 points a game. That&8217;s a big help for our offense.&8221;

Here&8217;s a look at other games:

4At the District 3-AA Tournament at Chamberlain-Hunt, the No. 1 seed Adams Christian Lady Rebels, tied for third place with Trinity Episcopal in The Democrat&8217;s area private school girls poll and ranked No. 5 in Class AA, take on the No. 4 seed Copiah Academy Lady Colonels today at 4 p.m.

The Lady Rebels struggled against teams from District 4-AA at the end of the regular season, mainly due to some nagging injures, losing to Oak Forest and Brookhaven Academy.

But with having the No. 1 seed, they automatically qualify for next week&8217;s Class AA South State Tournament. Coach John Gray was out of town and not available for comment.

4Even though Natchez High is through with its Division 6-5A schedule until the division tournament in a week and a half in Jackson, the regular season isn&8217;t over for the Bulldogs and Lady Bulldogs.

After Natchez High salvaged a split with Wilkinson County thanks to the Lady Bulldogs&8217; come-from-behind win over the Lady Wildcats, Natchez hosts Ferriday Tuesday.