COUSHATTA, La. — Mary Miller Ratcliff scored a game-high 29 points and had seven steals to lead the Tensas Academy Lady Chiefs to a 52-35 win over CENLA Christian Academy in the first round of the District 6-A Tournament at Riverdale Academy.

In addition to Ratcliff’s performance, their were two other factors that contributed to Tensas Academy’s win — a defense that held Lady Lions center Ikea Brown to just two points and an offense that was outstanding in the first half.

The Lady Chiefs, the East No. 1 seed, scored 18 points in each of the first two quarters and took a 15-point lead at halftime.

“That’s the best first half we’ve had,” head coach Allen Crigler said. “I was pleased with the way we played in the first half. We kind of got out of sync in the fourth quarter.”

As for the way Ratcliff played on both ends of the court, Crigler said, “Mary Miller had a great game. She converted a lot of steals into buckets and she hit a lot of pull-up jumpers. She would do a lot of dribble-drive and get to about 10 feet and hit the jumper.”

Tensas Academy (17-9) scored just four points in the final eight minutes, but its defense wouldn’t allow CENLA Christian to get back in the game. The Lady Lions, the West No. 4 seed, scored just six points.

“I thought we did a good job on defense,” Crigler said. “They were mostly shooting from outside. They hit a few, but not enough to hurt us.”

Kaitlen Emfinger and Jordan Leake scored six points each for the Lady Chiefs. Felicia Dickens and A. Keys led the Lady Lions with 10 points each.

Tensas Academy will take Riverdale, a 48-27 winner over Huntington, in the second girls’ semifinal game Friday at 6:30 p.m.

Riverdale 48, Huntington 27

COUSHATTA, La. — The first half between Riverdale and Huntington was a defensive battle that ended in a 14-14 tie. The second half, however, belonged to the Lady Rebels as they advanced to the semifinals of the District 6-A Tournament.

Huntington, the East No. 3 seed, got off to a good start against the host team and led 9-6 at the end of the first quarter. The Lady Hounds led 14-9 with about two minutes to go until the half before Riverdale ended the second quarter with a 5-0 run.

“Even though it was tied at halftime, we had to work extra, extra hard to do that,” Lady Hounds head coach Penny Moak said. “They were pretty quick. Their quickness paid off.”

Riverdale, the West No. 2 seed, outscored Huntington 15-8 in the third quarter and 19-5 in the fourth quarter to take control of the game.

Phyllicia Woods led Huntington (11-18) with nine points and Emilee Johns scored six points. Riverdale was led by Kara Bethard with 12 points and Brittany Foshee with 10 points.