FERRIDAY — Normally at this time of the year, the Ferriday varsity girls are playing in some kind of holiday tournament on the road.

But tonight, fans and relatives of the Lady Trojans will have the opportunity to attend a rare holiday season home game at the school when Ferriday hosts Madison Parish at 6.

“We’ve never had a home game during Christmas break, so this is a first for us,” Ferriday girls head coach Lisa Abron said.

“This is a chance for us to play in front of our home crowd, and I’m pretty sure some relatives are still in town, so they can come watch our girls.”

At the same time, Abron said she’s aware of the possibility that her team might be a little rusty thanks to the girls not playing games more regularly during the break.

“We had a good practice (Monday), and hopefully that will carry into the game,” she said. “The holidays always weigh heavily on everyone’s mind, but we had a good game against Richwood in the Rayville tournament Dec. 22.”

The Lady Trojans won that game 68-61, and Abron said she saw her players continue to build up confidence in their abilities.

“It was a big confidence booster, and hopefully we’ll carry that emotion and intensity into this game,” she said. “I think in that game they realized that we’re a team that could be competitive.”

With Ferriday sitting at 6-10, Abron said her team is learning to gel more and more as the season progresses.

“We’re preaching intensity on defense, and it’s starting to show up,” Abron said. “We knew it would take time, because we’re a young squad and we had a tough schedule in the beginning.

“It will all pay of for us though. I see a little growth in them each game, and they seem to be starting to buy in to our system.”

And Abron said she purposefully made the schedule tough on her young players to start the season.

“I’d rather they go ahead and see how it is in the beginning, and get acclimated to it,” she said. “You need to be tested early to know exactly what to do when district play rolls around.”

Ferriday has already lost to Madison Parish twice this season, and Abron said her team was just playing for bragging rights at this point.

“They have a post player that’s tough and a guard who’s good,” Abron said.

“We have to contain the big girl, because she scored too many on us last time, and we made it very comfortable for her to post up and get the ball. We plan to double cover her and pressure the guards a little more.”