FERRIDAY — Starting 0-2 in district play is something the Ferriday Lady Trojans are not accustomed to. In fact, it had never happened under head coach Lisa Abron until this season.

So it was imperative that Ferriday defeat Mangham to stay in the hunt in a wide-open District 2-2A. And the Lady Trojans were able to take care of the Lady Dragons 53-36 behind 16-point performances from Chante Poole and T’Keyah Fletcher.

“I feel relieved. We needed to get our confidence level back up. A win tonight has definitely given us a boost of confidence,” Abron said. “We knew we needed to win tonight at home.”

After losses to Sterlington on the road and Lake Providence at home last week, Ferriday’s confidence was indeed down. But would it stay down against Mangham? No.

Ferriday got off to the kind of start it so desperately needed and took a 14-3 lead over Mangham at the end of the first quarter. But the second quarter didn’t go quite as well as Abron would have liked as the Lady Trojans were outscored by the Lady Dragons 12-11. Still, the home team had a 26-16 lead at halftime.

“First half, I wasn’t too pleased, even though we had a nice 10-point lead. We didn’t do a good job rebounding. They have some big-sized girls. The second half, I told them we needed to be committed to rebounding. We got the rebound and that led to a lot of fast-break shots.”

Led by Poole, Fletcher and Keatrice Brown, Ferriday pulled away from Mangham after halftime and especially in the fourth quarter. Brown scored 12 points for the Lady Trojans.

Ferriday (8-12, 1-2) hits the road to take on Farmerville on Friday.

“The ones at home, we definitely need to handle our business. It’s difficult to win on the road,” Abron said. “Our district, it’s up for grabs this year.”

Franklin County 65, Wilkinson County 55

MEADVILLE — Franklin County senior point guard Leondra Shaw may be only 5’5”, but she made some big shots for the Lady Dawgs in the fourth quarter as they rallied to defeat Wilkinson County in Region 7-3A action Tuesday night.

After scoring just four points through three quarters, Shaw scored 12 of her 16 points in the fourth quarter to help Franklin County, the No. 5 team in the Clarion-Ledger’s Girls Super 10 poll and the No. 2 team in Class 3A, remain undefeated.

“She did a great job stepping up and knocking down shots. They backed off on her,” Lady Dawgs head coach Charles Moore said.

The score was tied at 36-36 at the end of the third quarter, but Franklin County outscored Wilkinson County 29-19 in the fourth quarter to escape with the win.

“We did a better job of shot selection (in the second quarter). And we worked a little bit harder on the boards. We got a little bit more intense because we realized this is a good ball club,” Moore said.

Briggs led Franklin County (16-0, 5-0) with 17 points and Collins finished with 16 points. Breshianna Day led Wilkinson County (8-13, 4-3) with 18 points while Tyesha Harris added 14 points and Lineasia Palmer had 13 points.

Both Franklin County and Wilkinson County will be on the road Friday in Region 7-3A action. The Lady Dawgs will be at Tylertown while the Lady Wildcats visit Hazlehurst.

Monterey 43, Glenmora 36

MONTEREY — Two of the top teams in District 6-B went at it Tuesday night as Monterey hosted Glenmora.

Led by Ellen Bairnsfather and Rachel Pecanty, the Lady Wolves held on for a seven-point win over the Lady Wildcats to stay undefeated through their first three district games – all at home.

Both teams got off to a slow start on the offensive end. And the defense displayed by both teams had a lot to do with that. Monterey ended up with a 9-4 lead at the end of the quarter. The second quarter saw a little more offensive productivity from the two teams with the Lady Wolves outscoring the Lady Wildcats 12-11 for a 21-15 halftime lead.

Bairnsfather led the Lady Wolves with a game-high 16 points while Pecanty scored nine points and Kristen Lipsey added eight points.

Monterey (20-1, 3-0) begins the first of its next five district games on the road this Friday when it travels to LeCompte, La. to take on Rapides.

Trinity Episcopal 54, Briarfield 20

LAKE PROVIDENCE, La. — Trinity Episcopal head coach Richy Spears was not happy with the team’s performance in a home loss to Bowling Green School last Saturday – especially when it comes to defense and rebounding.

But on Tuesday night against MAIS District 6-A opponent Briarfield, the Lady Saints did a much better job of both as they rolled past the Lady Rebels to remain undefeated in district play.

Bethany Ogden scored 19 points and Madelyn Cross had 15 points.

Trinity Episcopal (16-8, 5-0) hosts Tallulah Academy to finish up district play on Friday with the No. 1 seed in the next month’s district tournament on the line.