FERRIDAY — Trailing by five points at halftime of a game they desperately needed to win, the Ferriday Lady Trojans went back to an old standard in order to pull out the victory.

Trailing 24-19 at the break, the Lady Trojans came out in the second half with a strong pressure defense that led to some quick baskets that allowed them to regain the lead in what would eventually become a 52-48 victory over Lake Providence.

“We surprised them with our press (in the second half),” Ferriday coach Lisa Abron said. “That’s something we normally do in the beginning of the game, but we decided to do something different. We managed to come out in the second half and get the lead and pull out the win.”

Thanks to the press, the Lady Trojans scored almost as many points in the third quarter alone (18) as they had scored in the entire first half.

Ferriday was able to tie the score at 37 at the end of the third quarter and then outscored Lake Providence 15-9 in the fourth quarter to take the victory.

The key stretch of the fourth quarter came after Lake Providence’s Larrimi Williams hit a 3-pointer with 3:15 left to cut the Ferriday lead to 46-44.

Ferriday took over a minute off the clock on their next possession, which ended when Chante Poole drove to the basket for a layup.

The Lady Trojans then stole the Lake Providence inbounds pass and Poole found T’Keyah Fletcher for an open layup with 1:45 remaining that gave Ferriday a 50-44 lead.

Poole led Ferriday with 17 points.

“We opened the floor up for Chante to go one-on-one and drive to the basket,” Abron said. “She was very successful doing that. She had a great night for us.”

Jasmine Butler also had a great game for the Lady Trojans, scoring 16 points.

“Jasmine had an outstanding game as well,” Abron said. “She got some key rebounds and made some key baskets for us.”

The Lady Panthers cut the lead to 51-48 with 11 seconds remaining after a Bre’Anne Newton basket, but Keatrice Brown hit a free throw with 7.3 seconds left to ice the game for Ferriday.

With the win, Ferriday (17-8) moves into a tie with Lake Providence for first place in District 3-3A.

Both teams have 6-1 district records with two games remaining.

“We’re now in the running for the district championship again,” Abron said. “We’re now in the same scenario we were in last year. This was a huge win for us.”