FERRIDAY &8212; Eric Crump isn&8217;t the biggest man on the floor. He&8217;s not even big for Class 2A standards.

But he&8217;s the biggest big man Ferriday has, and he&8217;s well aware of the fact it doesn&8217;t really matter if you&8217;re 6-1 or 6-2 and trying to match up against someone 6-4 or 6-5 down low.

It&8217;s all in blocking out.

&8220;We work on blocking out every day during practice,&8221; Crump said. &8220;That&8217;s a key to winning &8212; rebounding. Blocking out is the key. If the man is bigger than you and you&8217;ve got the position, he can&8217;t do anything but come over your back.&8221;

Take note.

Crump had 19 points, mostly coming off second shots, while LaDerek Metcalfe came up with 14 just about the same away as the Trojans used the inside game and tight defense late for a 66-49 win over Sterlington in the opening round of the playoffs.

It&8217;s the first postseason win for the Trojans in quite some time, and they&8217;ll play at Newman Tuesday in the second round of the playoffs. Newman dropped Varnado, 39-34, Friday night.

&8220;We always want to go inside,&8221; Ferriday head coach James Davis said. &8220;I think that third quarter when we started going inside, that really opened things up. When I got LaDerek on the floor with Eric, I knew it was going to be trouble. The thing about it was we really wanted to go inside in the first half, but for some reason the guards were able to go inside and they were able to hit some shots from the perimeter.&8221;

The Panthers didn&8217;t have that big man in the middle, and the two teams matched up well and played a relatively close game until midway through the third quarter. But right about then was where the Trojans really controlled the boards by limiting Sterlington to one shot and getting second and third chances at the bucket on their end.

What was a 40-37 Ferriday lead with just under two minutes left in the third turned into a 15-point lead two minutes into the fourth.

&8220;We saw that they were getting on the boards, so we had to get the lead on the boards,&8221; Crump said. &8220;We realized they didn&8217;t match up with us, and we just took it to them. Just the point of being in the first round of the playoffs &8212; it&8217;s been a while since we won a playoff game. We&8217;re all excited and ready for the next opponent.&8221;

Crump and Metcalf came up with big buckets at the end of the third quarter and start of the fourth as the Trojans put together a 12-0 run over a five-minute span on into the fourth. Sterlington had trailed by 13 at one point but cut the deficit to 40-37 with 1:49 left in the third.

The Panthers didn&8217;t score again until the 5:27 mark in the fourth when Kevin Dizer put in a layup. They didn&8217;t score again until Mario Montgomery&8217;s bucket at the 1:47 mark &8212; a span of 8:02 where the Panthers scored only two points.

SHS point guard Jerry Harris went to the bench late in the third with his fourth foul.

&8220;We had our opportunities,&8221; Sterlington head coach Jesse Burnette said. &8220;We cut it to three and had the basketball on an in-bounds. We knew (Crump) was strong around the bucket. I thought we did a pretty good job of containing him, but you can&8217;t give him second and third shots inside. They did a good job.&8221;

Crump hit a jumper from the free throw line to answer Dizer&8217;s basket for a 54-39 lead, and both he and Metcalfe came up with buckets to give Ferriday a 60-39 lead with 2:06 left in the game.