FERRIDAY— Defense is key for the Ferriday High Lady Trojans to earn a victory over the No. 2 seed Red River High Lady Bulldogs tonight.

The LHSAA Class 2A quarterfinals begin at 6 p.m. today at Red River High School.

Lisa Abron, Ferriday High head coach, said in practices the Lady Trojans focused on executing their defensive plan.

“We’re trying to sort out where we have to be, focusing on the small details and footwork,” Abron said. “We’re fine tuning some things we fixed against Jonesboro-Hodge.”

In the regional round against Jonesboro-Hodge High School, Abron said the Lady Trojans started out playing defense not to her satisfaction.

But in the second half, the No. 7 seed Lady Trojans cleaned up their mistakes and earned the 55-50 victory over Jonesboro-Hodge.

In the victory over Jonesboro-Hodge, Shakeyla McCray came off of the bench and provided a spark on both offense and defense. McCray led the Lady Trojans (23-4) with 16 points. Tierra Spurs scored four points and Anasia Hawkins two points.

In preparation for the quarterfinals, Abron said they have not changed a whole lot since the victory.

“We just have to play some solid defense more than anything,” Abron said. “ Red River has some pretty good shooters and we need to lock them down. They like to play pressure defense and they don’t like to be pressured themselves. We’re going to give them the same dose of medicine they’re going to give us.”

With learning the new defensive scheme in practices this week, McCray said she had problems learning the defensive scheme.

“My teammates helped me out with learning the new defense,” McCray said. “Instead of me struggling with it, my teammates pushed me to do better.”

The last time the two teams played against each other was in the regional round of the 2017 playoffs. Red River won 81-45 over Ferriday.

The No. 2 seed Lady Bulldogs (27-5) come into the quarterfinal round after a 73-48 victory over Rosepine High School. Makalia Lewis led Red River with 22 points.

The winner between Ferriday and Red River will play in the semifinals against the No. 3 seed Avoyelles Public Charter School (23-1) or the No. 6 seed French Settlement High School (27-6).

Tip off is at 6 p.m. today at Red River High School.