You couldn’t blame Saline girls head coach Chris Toms and his Lady Bobcats team for feeling good even though they had just lost to Aradia in the finals of the annual Bienville Parish Tournament. 

And why not? 

After all the Lady Bobcats, after getting a first round bye, had made the finals by defeating fellow Class C nemesis Gibsland-Coleman 47-46. This is the same G-C team that less than a month ago the Saline girls fell to by a 53-24 score. The victory was the third in the last five games after starting the season losing six of their first seven. The two losses have come against Class 5A Haughton, who is 10-0 and ranked 6th in Division I and undefeated Arcadia. 

Talk about quite the turnaround. 

About the Arcadia game? Well the Lady Hornets beat Saline 59-27. Sounds bad but in reality it is the closest that any school has come in the last four games against the #2 ranked Division IV team in the state who now sports a 9-0 record. To put the score into comparison, Arcadia beat district Class 2A Ferriday 59-15, Class 5A West Monroe 54-18 and 1-1A rival Ringgold 56-19 in the last three games prior to the Bienville Parish Tourney final.

Another cause of good tidings among the team was Alana Gray, shown at right, becoming one of the few in Saline High School history to surpass the 1000 point milestone for her career.  Although being held to just 3 points against the Lady Hornets in the finals, Gray led Saline with 24 points in the victory over Gibsland – Coleman including 10 of the 15 points Saline scored in the fourth quarter to hold off a determined Lady Bulldog rally. 

Bienville Parish Tournament Semi-finals

Bienville Parish Tournament Finals

Saline Boys go one and done

Gibsland-Coleman 66 Saline 46:  Eli Ferguson scored 17 points to continue his coming out party in his freshman season but Gibsland-Coleman outscored the Bobcats in every quarter to take the semi-final contest in the Bienville Parish Tournament. The loss was the only game Saline played after drawing a bye in the first round. The second victory of the year over Saline improved the Bulldogs to 6-2 on the season while Saline dropped to 7-5 following their second straight loss on the heels of a season best six game winning streak. Gavyn Dailey scored nine and Trent Ledbetter added six for the Bobcats. Maddox Williams finished with five, Jer’Courtney Loyd made a three pointers and Conner Roberts, Bryce Davis and Jay Nash all tallied two points each.