tournament title Saturday

By CHRISTIAN SCHMIDT

FERRIDAY &045; The Trojans weren’t going to lose on their home court to their biggest rival. It was that simple.

Ferriday cruised to a finish in its own tournament, beating Vidalia 53-44 Saturday night in the final game of the Ferriday Tournament. The Trojans have now beaten Vidalia in both of the team’s meetings this year.

The Trojans were outscored 17-15 in the final quarter, but it hardly mattered. They had already done their damage. A suffocating defense all but shut down the Vidalia attack, preventing the Vikings from going on the fast break and shutting down Vidalia’s big interior line.

Ferriday led 27-21 at halftime and then turned up the defensive intensity. The Vikings managed just six points in the third quarter as the Trojans increased their lead to 38-27, setting up a fourth quarter in which they merely held on to the lead and finished with a convincing nine-point win.

&uot;It was a pretty good game for us, beating Vidalia here,&uot; Ferriday head coach James Davis said.

Vidalia had closed the game up midway through the second quarter, tying the score at 21 after starting the second quarter with a 14-6 run. During that stretch, the Vikings missed the front end of three one-and-ones which could have given them a lead in the game. As it was, Vidalia trailed the entire way, never even tying again.

Ferriday jumped out to a 13-7 lead at the end of the first quarter, starting the night off strong with some inside play from Eric Crump, who scored his only basket of the night, and five points from Dominique Myles, who had a 3-pointer to cap a 9-3 Trojan run that opened the game.

Ferriday’s defensive intensity in the first quarter set a tone for the game. Vidalia had few uncontested shots in the entire game.

&uot;We established ourselves on the defensive end early,&uot; Davis said. &uot;That really won the game for us.&uot;

It was the strong inside play of the Ferriday post players that provided much of the difference in the game.

&uot;We wanted to go inside early to set the tone,&uot; Davis said. &uot;We got some pretty easy shots that way with the ball movement we had.&uot;

Vidalia’s frontline was plagued by foul trouble. Jeremy Riggs missed long stretches of time in the first half and finished the game with just two points. Ramon Harris had to sit for part of the first half but came back strong, ending with a game-high tying 17 points.

Guard Ken Johnson also had 17 for the Vikings, as Vidalia had to rely on its little men.

Johnson is back from a broken leg suffered in the fall and appears to be rounding into form for the Vikings. Unfortunately for Vidalia, the rest of the team combined for just 10 points.

The Trojans got a balanced effort, with eight players scoring in the game and four players with nine or more points.

Ferriday won the game without getting its normal solid shooting from the outside.