By Daniel Green |  BWS Sports

LEESVILLE — Earlier this season, the DeRidder Dragons rallied to beat the Leesville Wampus Cats in a non-district matchup at the annual DHS Tournament.

But this time around, the Wampus Cats were able to hold off the late DeRidder surge.

Ju’lian Culbert sealed the deal at the free throw line late for the Wampus Cats as they knocked off the Dragons in District 3-4A play on Tuesday night, 51-46.

“Our guys were prepared to play today and felt they needed to get the win to make up for the last outing with DeRidder,” Leesville head coach Rickie Dixon said. “DeRidder was able to do some great things, but ultimately we were able to hit some shots late and come up with crucial stops when we needed.”

The Dragons were able to take an early lead on a couple of baskets by Kenias St. Romain. But after the early lead, Leesville closed out the first period on a 13-0 run to open up a 15-4 lead heading into the second quarter.

Though the Dragons went scoreless for nearly 10 minutes in the first half, they were still able to cut the deficit to 20-15 behind St. Romain and Uriah Wade. But a couple of late buckets from the Wampus Cats allowed Leesville to carry a 9-point advantage into the locker room, 24-15.

Ronald Jarden opened the second half with a three for the Dragons, but Leesville managed to hold onto its lead behind Culbert, Daven Scott and Jeremiah Lee, who knocked down a couple of threes. However, by the end of the third period, DeRidder had closed the gap to 36-31.

The Wampus Cats managed to go on a 9-4 run in the early moments of the fourth period to move out to a 45-35 advantage. However, the Dragons refused to back down and closed the gap to 48-45 thanks to a Brycen Rhodes three-pointer with 50 seconds to go.

With an opportunity to tie the game, DeRidder got a big stop on the defensive end, but promptly turned the ball over. To compound the mistake, Cam Tolliver was intentionally fouled, sinking 1-of-2 with about 1- seconds to go.

A few seconds later, Culbert drained both ends of the 1-and-1 to give Leesville an insurmountable lead and the subsequent victory.

“This was a solid all-around team win for us,” Dixon said. “I’m very happy we were able to come away with the win. And I must also applaud DeRidder for its great effort. They took advantage of us with their size, but we were able to hold on.”

Culbert led Leesville with 13 points, while Scott added 12 points. Lee chipped in with 11 points.

St. Romain was the lone Dragon in double figures as he finished with 14 points and 18 rebounds. Bryant Hammond chipped in with nine points and 13 rebounds.