A 16-4 spurt bridged between the second and third quarters proved to be a pivotal run for Ferriday High School as it blasted past Franklin Parish 73-42 in boys basketball Tuesday.

Ferriday (7-2) was leading 22-17 at the time of the big run, but turned it up a notch, forcing turnovers and turning those into points.

Franklin Parish led at the end of the first quarter 11-9.

“We’re still finding ourselves,” Ferriday coach K.G. Watkins said. “We wanted to play big all night instead of just playing basketball. We made bad mistakes (early on). … At halftime I told them, ‘Let’s just play basketball, and the rest of it will come.’ And that’s what happened.”

Marquell Griffin led the Trojans with 23 points, and Carlos Collins poured in 16 points, including four 3-pointers.

Ferriday poured in eight 3-pointers as a team.

“This is the first time in a long time that we’re blessed that we can play 15 players,” Watkins said. “We’re building, but our starting five is strong all the way through.

Despite tallying just eight points, post-player Dantrieze Scott dominated the interior. The 6-foot-4 big man tallied 13 rebounds to go along with three steals and two blocked shots.

“He’s a big player inside, and that feeds other guys around him to try and let him play big,” Watkins said. “We can play from the wings just as well as we can from down low. We’re learning that if we play well from the outside, that will open up the inside for Dantrieze.”

Ferriday will be back in action Thursday when it participates in the Jena Tournament to take place in Jena.

“We need to get a little more consistent and stopping making the negative mistakes,” Watkins said. “If we can take our mistakes out of the game, we would be a much better basketball team.”

Ferriday (girls) 55, 

Franklin Parish 26

Ferriday stormed out to a 16-4 advantage after the first quarter and never looked back as it routed Franklin Parish 55-26 in girls basketball.

“We did some real good things tonight,” Ferriday coach Lisa Abron said. “I was pleased with the defense, that’s what we’ve been working on in practice a lot lately.”

The Lady Trojans (7-2) utilized a strong blend of post players in conjunction with speedy perimeter players to wear down the Lady Patriots.

Interior players Shanique Hillard, Zhane Green, Pacha Poole and Tierra Spurs combined to score 24 points, with Hillard leading the charge with nine points.

“It’s nice to have (big players) this year,” Abron said. “I’ve had teams like that in the past, and we had a dry spell recently, so it’s good to have some big people that I can work around, and we can run multiple offenses and defenses.”

Anasia Turner led Ferriday with 15 points while Shakeyla McCray had eight points.

“We have a lot of girls that can run,” Abron said. “We’re using that to our advantage defensively, and that’s also helping us out on offense.”

Ferriday led at halftime 28-13 and maintained a 15-point advantage throughout the third period.

The Lady Trojans left no doubt in the outcome with an impressive 15-4 fourth quarter.

Ferriday will attempt to keep the momentum going Thursday at the Jena Tournament.