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FERRIDAY — Marque Terrell entered the 2023 Monterey High School Basketball Tournament as Ferriday High School’s leading scorer at 19 points per game. And while he was held way under that average against both Grant High School and Monterey High School last week, the Trojans came out on top against the Cougars and the host Wolves.

Last Wednesday night, the LHSAA Class 2A Ferriday High School Trojans rallied in the second half to defeat the Class 4A Grant High School Cougars 57-50. Terrell was held to just six points in that game, but he got plenty of help from his teammates.

Demarcus Mitchell led Ferriday with a game-high 13 points while both Mike Kelly and C.J. Washington contributed with 10 points each. Shavarius Watson chipped in with nine points.

The Trojans went into halftime trailing the Cougars 21-20, but they came alive offensively in the second half as they outscored Grant 18-12 in the third quarter and 19-13 in the fourth quarter.

And as Ferriday head coach Shawn Davis said, it was also the kind of defense the Trojans used that eventually paid big dividends.

“We played mainly man-to-man against Grant. We normally play zone. As it turned out, we have some athletes who can play man-to-man,” Davis said. “Marque was held to six points. He was is foul trouble and only played about eight minutes. Some other guys stepped up. We persevered against Grant.”

Davis added that the Trojans carried that momentum from the Grant game to the game last Friday night against tournament host Monterey High School.

And even though that was a much lower-scoring game, Ferriday held on for a 40-37 victory over Monterey. Terrell did score in double figures in that match-up and finished with 10 points, but once again it took a team effort on both ends of the court for the Trojans to pull out this win.

“It was a good game by both teams. Not too many turnovers. A lot of long possessions. They presented us a different style. They hold the ball for 35 to 40 seconds and make you play sound defense,” Davis said.

Ferriday led Monterey 10-6 at the end of the first quarter and 18-11 at halftime. The Trojans made sure they kept the Wolves at arms’ length thanks to an 11-10 advantage in the third quarter for a 29-21 advantage. The Wolves nearly pulled off the comeback in the fourth quarter, but time ran out on them despite a 16-11 advantage over the Trojans.

Mike Kelly led Ferriday with 12 points and Demarcus Mitchell added 11 points. J. Magoun led Monterey with a game-high 13 points and T. Blount had 12 points.

Davis added that he is pleased with where his Trojans, with three sophomores and two freshmen in the starting line-up, are at after seven games played.

Ferriday (4-3) traveled to Delhi, La. to take on the Delhi Charter School Gators at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.