Destrehan’s Wildcats held off a late Northlake Christian School Wolverines rush to take a 48-42 victory Friday night in the Mandeville Skipper Classic. Destrehan senior Roosevelt Johnson, who was selected to the all-tournament team, dropped in a game-high 11 points and controlled the boards to help lead the Wildcats to victory.

Destrehan’s Sean Palmer contributed nine points followed by Koy Fagan and Kevin Smothers with eight points each.

Destrehan hung on for the victory holding off a spunky Class 1A Northlake Christian School, despite hitting only 10-of-25 free throws.

NCS senior point guard Josh Ryan (24) launches a long-range jumper guarded by Destrehan'€™s Akeem Sumlin. (Staff Photo by Mike Pervel)

Destrehan raced out to a 6-0 lead as NCS missed its first four shots and committed three consecutive turnovers. NCS got back in it going on a 6-0 run of its own with Alex Reed, who topped the Wolverines with 10 points, hitting a hoop with 4:40 left. Wolverines’ point guard Josh Ryan drained his first of three treys followed by another Reed basket on an inbounds pass from Ryan to give the Wolverines a 7-6 lead.

NCS grabbed an 11-10 first quarter lead with Jacob Draffen grabbing a rebound then scoring on a put back at the buzzer.

With 4:38 to go in the second quarter Destrehan’s Palmer connected on a three-pointer to tie the game at 16-16, which triggered an 11-0 run, helped by NCS turning the ball over on five consecutive possessions. Palmer clicked on another trey with 1:24 remaining in the first half to give Destrehan a 24-16 lead. Northlake Christian Carter Fitzgerald made one of two charity tosses to stop the run.

Destrehan’s Smothers scored on the inside with just four seconds left and was fouled. He hit the free throw to give the Wildcats a 27-17 halftime lead.

Neither team could generate much offense in the third quarter with Destrehan outscoring NCS 9-8 to increase its lead to 36-25. Johnson and Fagan hit 3-pointers for the Wildcats, while Taylor Bazzell drained a trey for the Wolverines with Reed adding four points.

NCS continued to hustle in the fourth quarter to make a game of it.

The Wolverines trailed 40-25 when Ryan swished a trey with 5:04 left.

Following a Destrehan miss, Ryan bottomed out another 3-pointer to cut the lead to 40-31 with 4:30 to play.

Timmy Broussard, who came off the bench, delivered a key 3-pointer on the Wolverines’ next possession to make it a six-point game with 3:40 remaining. Broussard finished with seven points in the final quarter.

With time running out, NCS was forced to foul, putting Destrehan at the free throw line. The Wildcats made 6-of-14 free throw attempts down the stretch to hold off the Wolverines. During the last two minutes, Fagan made 3-of-4, Andre Zeringue made two and Pack Williams converted one to hold off NCS.

In Thursday night’s action, NCS trimmed Warren Easton 40-39 in overtime. The game was tied 39-39 at the end of regulation play. Reed hit a free throw, the only point of overtime, to give the Wolverines the victory. NCS only had four players break into the scoring column led by Reed with 13 points. Ryan finished with 11 points including two 3-pointers. Bazzell contributed eight points with two 3-pointers and a basket along with Will Werner, who added eight. Warren Easton’s Lionel Causey tallied a game-high 21 points with 14 coming in the final quarter including three treys. He finished with five 3-pointers in the game.

NCS fell in its opening game, losing to the host Mandeville Skippers 63-55.