FERRIDAY — The Ferriday High School girls basketball team was hoping the third time was a charm against Madison Parish Tuesday night.

But despite a solid first half, Madison Parish rode a strong third quarter to a 49-43 win against Ferriday. It marked the third time this season Madison defeated Ferriday.

Lady Trojans head coach Lisa Abron said foul trouble on Ferriday’s part forced them to revert to a zone defense after man-to-man matchups saw some success early.

“The difference was us getting into foul trouble,” Abron said. “It cost us the game. We were forced to go out of man-to-man and into zone, and that’s when they came inside on us.”

Madison’s low-post player Malik Bates scored 14 points for the Lady Jaguars, 10 of which came in the second half when the Lady Trojans had to abandon man-to-man.

“She got some open shots when we switched back to zone, and she requires a lot of work from my girls, with their size versus hers,” Abron said.

“They were supposed to double team her, with one girl in front of her and one behind, but somehow our assignments got crossed up.”

The Lady Trojans led 22-16 to open the second half, but Madison came storming back, scoring eight points in the opening four and a half minutes of the third. The Lady Jaguars held Ferriday to just one free throw in that timeframe before Sha’Keria Kelly hit a three-pointer with 3:10 left in the third.

Madison finished with 20 points in the third quarter, which Ferriday scored just eight. Both teams tallied 13 points in the fourth quarter.

Despite being down by as many as 10 points in the fourth quarter, Ferriday didn’t give up, cutting the Madison lead to 47-43 with 1:05 left. The Lady Trojans would not score again, however, as Katem McKnight hit two free throws with four seconds left to seal the win.

“I was pleased with the effort tonight,” Abron said. “We’ve been playing with a lot of intensity, heart and pride the last four or five games, and we didn’t let up tonight. We’re going to need that for the rest of the season.”

Chante Poole led Ferriday with 15 points, and Kelly finished with 11 points. Abron said she was very impressed with Kelly, who stepped in for T’Keyah Fletcher while Fletcher was out for personal reasons.

“She’s a true freshman, and she can shoot the ball,” Abron said. “She doesn’t like to shoot it, but she can. The other team wasn’t giving her respect. They were playing off her, so we told her she needed to shoot it.

“She knocked it down several times, and we need to see more of that from her early in the game.”

Ferriday (6-11) won’t play against until Jan. 7, when it hosts Block at 6 p.m.