Ferriday — The Lady Trojans of Ferriday could not find an answer for the full-court press of the Winnfield Lady Tigers until it was too late. Ferriday, 15-13, suffered a 60-42 loss to Winnfield, 24-4, in the Regional round of the LHSAA class 2A playoffs.

“We knew they were a running team, and we wanted to slow them down, but they were in a lot better shape than we were,” head coach Lisa Abron said. “Everything we tried to do, they had an answer for.”

In the fourth quarter, it seemed as if Ferriday found out a way to penetrate the full-court press that the Lady Tigers we running, something they could not do the first three periods of the game.

“We started finding gaps in the middle of court and we took advantage of it,” senior Chanta Poole said. “If we could have played the entire game like the fourth period, we could have won the game.”

Poole managed to score the bulk of Ferriday’s points. In the first quarter she scored the first seven points for Ferriday and nine of 11 after the first period ended. By game’s end, Poole had 21 points, which was half of Ferriday’s total.

“I couldn’t ask for more out of Chanta,” Abron said. “She put the team on her shoulders, but it just wasn’t enough.”

“It’s a real disappointment to lose like that,” Poole said. “We could’ve won. But you can’t blame anyone, everyone make mistakes.”

Ferriday, however, did make a lot of mistakes. With Winnfield pressing them throughout most of the game, Ferriday turned the ball over often. Bad passes were stolen and miscommunication led to a lot of fast breaks for Winnfield.

Ferriday also did not rebound well, giving Winnfield multiple offensive boards. Those offensive rebounds often translated into points.

“No. 32 (Christina Gray) is a ULM signee. She uses her body really well, especially her lower body,” Abron said. “She’s not that big but she puts herself into position to get rebounds.”

Gray scored 14 points for Winnfield.

Coach Abron will be losing five seniors from this year’s squad and feels this was her best chance to win a championship, especially with a group that has been with her since junior high.

“It’s very emotional, you can grow attached to this kids, but that’s how this sport works,” Abron said. “It’s going to be hard to replace five seniors. They’re all good students as well as good athletes. It’s really hard to let them go.”