FAYETTE — It looked like the Jefferson County Tigers were well on their way to dropping their first game in Region 7-3A this season after falling behind to Hazlehurst by 19 points at halftime.

Even though Jefferson County was dedicating this game to starter Bouvier Ellis, who suffered a broken jaw and a couple of cracked ribs in a car accident about a week ago, many would have thought there would be no way the Tigers would come back from that big of a deficit.

But with Ellis watching on, and Davion Noble playing some inspired basketball despite having several stitches above his eye from what turned out to be an incidental head-to-head collision with a Tylertown player last Tuesday night, Jefferson County rallied to defeat Hazlehurst 83-78.

“Defensive intensity was our big focus,” Jefferson County head coach LaRondrial Barnes said. “Noble gave us some very valuable minutes considering he hasn’t practiced the last few days.”

The Tigers sure didn’t play much defense in the first half in general and the first quarter in particular. In fact, the opening eight minutes was just a nightmare on both ends of the court for the home team. By the time the quarter was finally over, Hazlehurst led 25-9. The second quarter was much closer, but the Indians took a 47-28 lead into halftime.

But in the second half, Jefferson County, led by Noble, Terry Tenner and Marvin Miller, took over. And all of a sudden, Hazlehurst’s confidence started to fade away. The Tigers outscored the Indians 28-20 in the third quarter and completed the amazing comeback with a 27-11 advantage in the fourth quarter.

Noble led Jefferson County (12-9, 8-0) with 31 points while Tenner finished with 30 points and Miller had 17 points. Hazlehurst was led by Gabriel Gray with a game-high 37 points and Tory Quinn with 18 points.

Trinity Episcopal 97, Huntington 70

FERRIDAY — Friday night’s MAIS District 6-A game between the Trinity Episcopal Saints and the Huntington Hounds was, for a change, closely contested for much longer than expected.

But when Huntington’s Kevin Brown fouled out late in the third quarter and Jess Dossett fouled out early in the fourth quarter, any chance of the Hounds upsetting the No. 2 team in Class A came to an end.

Trinity Episcopal, which had six players score in double figures, wound up outscoring Huntington 31-9 in the final eight minutes to pull away for a 97-70 win to finish undefeated in district play.

Brown, who finished with 23 points, and Dossett, who scored 14 points, were not the only players who kept the Hounds in the game. Jeremiah Powell scored 15 points and Garrett Vinson had 10 points. And with the way those four were playing, perhaps Trinity Episcopal needed to have all those players score at least 12 points.

The Hounds actually led the Saints at the end of the first quarter, 18-17. The second quarter saw even more offense and less defense as Trinity Episcopal put up 23 points while Huntington scored 22 points to make the halftime score 40-40. Usually when the score is close as halftime, the Saints put away their opponent in the third quarter. That was not the case, however, on this night as they outscored the Hounds by just five points.

But with Brown and then Dossett on the bench, there was little Huntington could do to slow down Trinity Episcopal’s offensive onslaught.

Kent King led the Saints with 25 points while L.J. Trimble had 16 points, Givonni Dent scored 15 points, Jordan Dossett and Jake Winston each had 13 points, and R.J. Fleming added 12 points. Trinity Episcopal improved to 17-7 overall and finished 10-0 in district play.

Tallulah Academy 57, Tensas Academy 53

ST. JOSEPH, La. — Tensas Academy needed a win over Tallulah Academy to possibly take over the No. 2 seed for next week’s MAIS District 6-A Tournament. Unfortunately, their furious fourth-quarter rally came up short as the Trojans held on for a four-point win Friday night.

The Chiefs had a hard time getting shots from the field as well as free throws to fall in the first half, which ended with the Trojans having what appeared to be a commanding 35-13 lead. However, Tallulah Academy saw almost all of that lead go away as the second half went on. Lucky for the Trojans, who were outscored by Tensas Academy 40-22 after halftime, time ran out on the Chiefs.

Jes Shivers led Tallulah Academy, which finished 7-3 in district pay, with 17 points and Tandon Baker added 15 points. Tensas Academy (8-11, 5-5) was led by Jon Truman James with 16 points and Austin Emfinger with 12 points.

Sterlington 49, Ferriday 46 (OT)

MONROE, La. — Ferriday’s bid to pick up its third win of the season was not meant to be Friday night as Sterlington rallied to force overtime and then outscored the Trojans 4-1 in the extra session to escape with a three-point win in District 2-2A action.

Ferriday (2-21, 1-4) led Sterlington 17-16 after one quarter of play and then extended its lead to four points at the end of the third quarter. But the Panthers outscored the Trojans 12-8 in the fourth quarter to keep the game going.

M. Allred led Sterlington with 13 points while J. Crew and K. Goldsby each had 12 points. The Trojans were led by Ted’Rai Gullage with 13 points and Markell Bell with 10 points.

Monterey 52, Avoyelles Charter 33

MONTEREY, La. — Josh Chapman led all scorers with 25 points as the Monterey Wolves used two big quarters to defeat the Avoyelles Charter Vikings in a District 6-B game Friday night.

Monterey (15-10, 2-2) turned a close game at the end of the first quarter into a rout by outscoring Avoyelles Charter 14-5 in the second quarter and 12-6 in the third quarter for a 40-23 lead.

The only other player for either team to score in double figures was Jeasonne for the Vikings, who had 16 points.

Block 62, Northwood-Lena 46

LENA, La. — Jerome Jefferson, Preston Bowman and Antoine Bowie each scored 14 points to lead the Block Bears to a 16-point win over the Northwood-Lena Gators to stay in the hunt in District 3-1A.

Block (12-10, 4-2) jumped out to a 13-4 lead over Northwood-Lena at the end of the first quarter and the Gators, despite a good second quarter, never really got back in the game.