ferriday — It took extra minutes and clutch shooting to decide who kept playing and who went home.

For the Ferriday Lady Trojans, more time wasn’t the answer as St. Thomas Aquinas came out the victor 65-62 Monday night in the Class AA Girls State Tournament.

In the first quarter Ferriday used a 13-2 run to take a nine-point lead over the Lady Falcons.

St. Thomas Aquinas responded with great shooting and ran all over the Lady Trojans to take a two-point lead at the half.

In the third, the game stayed close with neither team taking full control.

Ferriday slowed down the three-point shooting by the Lady Falcons, but couldn’t completely shut down their potent offense.

In the fourth quarter, the Lady Trojans came out and used a 7-2 run to gain momentum, but St. Thomas Aquinas didn’t get down and fought back.

Ferriday lost the ball with :12 to go in the fourth quarter, and fouled Rebekah Greer to give the Lady Falcons an attempt to tie up the game.

Greer made both free throws to send the game into overtime.

Jasmine Upchurch and Jalessia Davis led Ferriday by taking it to the basket and capitalizing on free throw attempts.

Greer would be fouled twice more in the overtime and made all four of her free throws to bring the Lady Falcons right back in the game.

Neither team got an edge and the game went into a second overtime.

Just seconds after the second overtime started Jasmine Upchurch fouled out and it looked grim for Ferriday from then on.

The Lady Falcons took advantage of free throw opportunities and made clutch shots to take a five-point lead over Ferriday and wrap up the win.

“We just never gave up on the press,” St. Thomas Aquinas head coach Misty Holton said.

“We knew our size would dominate,” Ferriday head coach Lisa Abron said. “It just came down to free throws. I’m proud of our season.”

Ferriday returns all of their players next season as there were no seniors on the team this year.

Jasmine Upchurch led the Lady Trojans with 23 points while Jasmine Butler added 18 points.

Rebekah Greer and Christy Shelby both scored 16 points to lead St. Thomas Aquinas.