NATCHEZ &045; Playing Trinity Episcopal two weeks ago kept everything fresh on the minds of the Adams Christian Lady Rebels.

But for good measure, they broke down and studied film from that loss and watched it until they got everything right. The Lady Rebels were almost a different team on the defensive side and muscled out a 40-27 win over the Lady Saints to even the season series in the girls’ side of the crosstown showdown.

&uot;I’m just proud of the way they played defense tonight,&uot; AC head coach John Gray said. &uot;They hustled, and they really did a great job of taking away Trinity’s strengths tonight. It was a total team effort. We came back in and worked two days during the holidays, and it really paid off.&uot;

It all paid off the Lady Rebels, who really made Trinity work for a shot just about every time down the floor. They contained Trinity top scorer Mallory Archer, who had just one field goal and finished with eight points after burning them for 15 points in the first game.

The Lady Rebels led 19-9 at half.

&uot;We never got in sync,&uot; Trinity head coach Melanie Hall said. &uot;But you can’t go seven or eight days without practicing with your full team and expect to come out and play a good ball game. It’s not going to happen. We didn’t play well. We’ll take it and learn from it and hopefully be better for it.&uot;

The Lady Saints had just two field goals in the second quarter, one when Sierra Massey hit a bucket with 6:01 left and another three minutes later from Laura Jo Hurt. Archer cashed in on an layup at the 5:45 mark in the third quarter, but the Lady Rebels answered with an 8-2 run to finish the quarter with a 30-16 lead.

Vidalia 48, Sicily Island 47

SICILY ISLAND, La. &045; The Vidalia Lady Vikings had one of its best outings in the last two-plus seasons, only to have Rockel Gary score the game-winner as time expired for a dramatic 49-48 win in overtime.

Vidalia took the lead at 48-47 with 7.4 seconds left in the overtime period on two free throws. After Sicily Island (6-5) called a time out, the inbound pass went to Gary, who dribbled it the length of the court and made the lay-up at the buzzer.

Huntington 75, CHA 9

FERRIDAY, La. &045; Katie Moak led four Lady Hounds (5-5) in double figures with 13 points and Erin Hedrick had 11 points as they made short work of the Lady Wildcats Tuesday night.

Franklin 59, West Lincoln 53

MEADVILLE &045; Victoria Hunt led Franklin County (3-1) with 20 points. Shareka Hunt scored 12 points while Shalenia Wilcher and Ashley Weathersby had 10 points each. And it was a good thing because the Lady Bears were lighting it up from behind the arc, especially Lauren Smith, who finished with 18 points.

&uot;The Smith girl hit six 3-pointers,&uot; Lady Bulldogs head coach Charles Moore said. &uot;They shot the ball well. They hit nine 3-pointers that kept them in the game. Both teams played real hard.&uot;

The Lady Bulldogs took a precarious one-point lead in the fourth quarter, but that’s when Victoria Hunt took over, scoring nine of her 20 points as the home team had an 18-13 edge in the final eight minutes to escape with a big win.

Monterey girls 44, LaSalle 38

OLLA, La. &045; Nine players scored for the Lady Wolves, led by Brittany Woodruff with 14 points, as they jumped out to a 10-point halftime lead and held on in the second half to defeat the Lady Tigers Tuesday night.

&045;

Patrick Jones