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OAKDALE, La. — The Ferriday High School Lady Trojans had to overcome one obstacle after another just to make the 2023 LHSAA Division IV (Non-Select) Playoffs during what was a tumultuous 2022-2023 season.

And yet Ferriday was able to get in as the No. 24 seed. Unfortunately for an undermanned Lady Trojans team, their season came to an end last Thursday night as they lost to the No. 9 seed Oakdale High School Lady Warriors 64-15.

Lady Trojans head coach Lisa Abron said her team was done in early and often by turnovers caused by an Oakdale defense she referred to as “smothering” and described as similar to what her teams in the past that were really good played against their opponents.

“Starting out, I thought we were too relaxed. Turned the ball over too many times. We dug ourselves a really big hole,” Abron said. “They pressured us and we kept turning the ball over. Turnovers doomed us at the beginning and it kept going throughout the game. We couldn’t get anything going offensively.”

Oakdale jumped out to a 19-3 lead by the end of the first quarter and then outscored Ferriday 20-8 in the second quarter for a commanding 39-11 halftime lead. It was more of the same in the second half as the Lady Warriors outscored the Lady Trojans 13-3 in the third quarter ad 12-1 in the fourth quarter.

Kaylee Bradley led a balanced scoring attack for the Lady Warriors with 12 points and Zakyrah Spikes chipped in with 10 points.

Only three players for the Lady Trojans found their way into the scoring column. They were led by Anashia Hawkins with nine points while Myla Harbor finished with four points and Akyri Sheppard had two points.

Abron said she was surprised the Lady Trojans even made the playoffs despite playing in the always-tough District 2-2A — especially considering the adversity they had to deal with.

“We had some girls who were suspended. We had one player who had a heart problem and we didn’t know if she was going to make it. Just one thing after another started happening,” Abron said. “It was a struggle for us, but we fought through it.

“We were blessed to make the playoffs. We played with who we had. We ended up with seen players (Thursday) night. We were small in size, but we played big in heart and that’s all we can ask for. We put up a good fight,” she added.

Oakdale improved to 19-12 overall and will play at No. 8 seed Lake Arthur High School in a regional-round game next Monday at 6 p.m.

Considering all the Lady Trojans went through during the season, they still managed to finish with an overall record of 12-13.