ST. JOSEPH, La. — For the first time in over a decade, Vidalia High School’s varsity girls basketball team is above .500 after the fifth game of the season.

Taylor Wilson led the Lady Vikings with 12 points and Bre’Honor Harris added 11 points as they withstood General Trass High School’s fourth-quarter rally to defeat the Lady Panthers 37-32 Friday night at the Tensas High School Tournament.

“We played pretty well as a team, head coach Fred Marsalis said. “The kids played together. They came together as a team.”

Vidalia played outstanding defense throughout the first three quarters, holding General Trass under 10 points in each of those quarters. And that allowed the Lady Vikings to have leads of 11-7 after one quarter of play, 17-11 at halftime, and 29-15 at the end of the third quarter.

“Our primary defense is a match-up zone. They had problems with it because they’re an inside team,” Marsalis said. “We still have some work to do. We missed a lot of lay-ups. But we did better on our free-throw shooting.”

Despite having just three players in the scoring column, the Lady Panthers cut that 14-point deficit to single digits in the fourth quarter. Even though they scored 17 points in that quarter, they could not quite make enough stops to pull off what would have been a miraculous comeback.

“They surprised us with three 3-pointter,” Marsalis said. “But we hung in there pretty well.”

Vidalia (3-2) will take on tournament host Tensas High School at 10 a.m today.

Ferriday girls 51, Madison Parish 48

ST. JOSEPH, La. — Jada Griggs led Ferriday with a game-high 25 points and Shaniqua Hillard added 14 points as the Lady Trojans defeated the Madison Parish Lady Jaguars 51-48 Friday night at the Tensas High School Tournament.

Ferriday won the game despite scoring just four points in the first quarter and nearly blowing a 12-point lead at the end of the third quarter. Lady Trojans head coach Lisa Abron said the slow start was expected, but she did not figure the first quarter would be as bad as it was.

“This is our fourth game of the week, and so we knew it was going to catch up with us,” Abron said. “We managed to regroup and applied pressure like we normally do. It was a dog fight from there to the wire.”

The Lady Trojans found themselves down 12-4 at the end of the first quarter, but they did not panic. Thanks to that press defense, they outscored Madison Parish 16-7 in the second quarter go into halftime with a 20-19 lead and 21-10 in the third quarter for a 41-29 lead.

As for Griggs’ performance, Abron said, “Just the normal things that she does, being the top man on press allows her to get easy buckets and the fact she can shoot the three, she knocked down some of those.”

Ferriday tried to play keep away from Madison Parish in the fourth quarter, but it almost backfired on the Lady Trojans.

“We had a few players get in foul trouble in the fourth quarter, had some kids get off the bench and step up,” Abron said. “We were just trying to run some of the clock out. We just wanted to use that strategy and get the best possible shot.”

The Lady Jaguars ended up outscoring the Lady Trojans 19-10 in the fourth quarter, but it was not quite enough.

Next up for Ferriday (5-1) is a road game at Block next Tuesday. Abron said having a few days off between games will be much-needed.

“It will be lovely. We are all tired. I know they are tired. It’ll be good to let them get some rest,” Abron said. “Playing a lot of games in the week, it is only going to help us get stronger.”

Block boys 76, Jena 63

MONTEREY — Anthony Barber led five Block players in double figures with 20 points and Raymond Plummer had 17 points as the Bears defeated the Jena Giants 76-63 Friday night at the Monterey High School Basketball Tournament.

Dorian Bowman added 15 points while Vyn’Quez O’Steen and Kendarius Jones scored 12 points each for Block, which outscored Jena in each of the first three quarters en route to a 59-43 advantage heading into the fourth quarter.

Jena tried to get back in the game in the fourth quarter, but the Giants only managed to outscore Block 20-17.

Block (2-1) will take on tournament host Monterey at 1:30 p.m. today.

Vidalia boys 55, General Trass 51

ST. JOSEPH, La. — Julius Wilson led Vidalia with a game-high 18 points and Desmond Bindon poured in 10 points as the Vikings held on for a 55-51 win over the General Trass Panthers Friday night at the Tensas High School Basketball Tournament.

Neither team got off to a good start offensive as the first quarter ended with Vidalia leading General Trass 9-6. Then it looked like the Vikings were going to take control of the game after they outscored the Panthers 21-10 in the second quarter for a 30-16 halftime lead.

But the Panthers would not go away. Led by Devontay Thompson and Danielle Scott, they continued to chip away at the Vikings’ lead in the second half. But they were not able to get over the hump at the end.

Thompson led General Trass with 14 points and Scott chipped in with 12 points.

Vidalia (4-1) goes up against Tensas High School today at 5:30 p.m.

Jena girls 71, Block 33

MONTEREY — The Jena Lady Giants scored 30 points in the first quarter and never looked back as they rolled to a 71-33 win over the Block Lady Bears Friday afternoon at the Monterey High School Basketball Tournament.

This was the season-opener for Block and from the start, the Lady Bears were overmatched by a good Jena team. Not only did the Lady Giants put up a lot of points in the first quarter, they also held the Lady Bears to just four points.

By the time halftime arrived, Jena was comfortably ahead 45-13. And it didn’t get any better for Block in the third quarter as it was outscored 20-8 to trail 65-21. The only good spot was the fourth quarter, when the Lady Bears outscored the Lady Giants 12-6.

Vontresia Barber led the Lady Bears with 12 points.

Block (0-1) will take on tournament host Monterey at noon today.