After falling behind 27-9 after the first quarter of play, the Ferriday Trojans found themselves up against the ropes.

But they weren’t going to go down easy against New Living Word, and the Trojans gave the Lions a run for their money, falling 77-58.

“We’re just young and have a lot to learn,” Ferriday head coach K.G. Watkins said. “The fact that we did keep fighting was a positive. New Living Word has a senior varsity team, and we’ve got a lot of freshmen. By the time we get to that point, it’ll work.”

Early in the game, the Lions were getting their points exclusively from behind the three-point line, led by Javier Roper.

“Shots were falling,” New Living Word head coach Jerry Baldwin said. “They gave us a lot of uncontested threes. They were stopping a lot of the inside stuff, so we decided we were going to shoot the ball and bring them out of that. (Roper) can play, he’s our go to guy.”

Watkins said he and his team were expecting the shooting frenzy, but weren’t able to respond quick enough.

“We knew they were going to be an outside shooting team,” Watkins said. “We didn’t check up as fast as we needed to in the beginning and they got off to a nice little run. After we started to come out and put pressure on them outside, we had an opportunity to come back, we just didn’t want to get started on time.”

Ferriday was able to draw within seven at halftime, outscoring New Living Word 16-8 in the second quarter, but it was the closest the Trojans would get to the Lions the rest of the way.

Despite hanging in for some time, Watkins said he wasn’t necessarily pleased with how the team played.

“We didn’t play well at all this evening,” Watkins said. “We knew what was coming and we knew what they were doing, but we didn’t execute. Hopefully we’ll get better.”

District play is right around the corner for Ferriday and Watkins is keeping a positive attitude moving forward.

“I don’t want to be overly optimistic, but I see the potential,” Watkins said. “Hopefully, we’ll make it happen.”