MEADVILLE &045; Even though Juan Wyatt was held to eight points, his free throw with 8/10 of a second left gave the fifth-seeded Jefferson County Tigers a 54-53 win over the fourth-seeded Wilkinson County Wildcats Tuesday night in the opening round of the Division 7-3A Tournament.

Jefferson County (13-11) will play top-seeded Amite County in a boys’ semifinal game at 5:30 p.m. Thursday. Wilkinson County finished at 20-10.

Dewones Smith led Jefferson County with a game-high 18 points and Joshfer Nichols chipped in with 17 points.

&uot;We’ve put Joshfer in more scoring opportunities,&uot; Tigers head coach Marcus Walton said. &uot;He has proven to be that extra scorer for us.&uot;

Bryant Spiller led the Wildcats with 14 points and Kenny Knight had 13 points.

Wilkinson County jumped out to an 18-12 lead after one quarter of play, but Jefferson County got back in the game by playing solid defense in the second quarter, which resulted in an 14-6 advantage and a 26-24 halftime lead.

&uot;We just played better defense in the second quarter, which was our best quarter,&uot; Walton said. &uot;We did a good job rebounding and boxing out in the second quarter.&uot;

The Wildcats took a slim one-point lead, 41-40, going into the fourth quarter by outscoring the Tigers 17-14 in the third quarter.

Jefferson County then outscored Wilkinson County 14-12 in the fourth quarter and Wyatt’s game-winning free throw helped the Tigers move on in the division tournament.

&uot;We played disciplined down the stretch,&uot; Walton said. &uot;We ran the offense and executed.

Newellton boys 66, Block 61

JONESVILLE, La. &045; Chris Snowden led five Newellton players in double figures with 16 points as the visiting Bears made it a sweep of the home-team Bears in District 4-1A action Tuesday night.

Quentin Jackson, Ian Jordan and Aretius Ransome added 11 points and Antoine Martin had 10 points for Newellton (4-20, 1-7).

Jamarcus Crumpton led Block (6-19, 3-6) with a game-high 21 points and Jeremy Washington had 20 points.

St. Aloysius 66, Cathedral 51

VICKSBURG &045; The Flashes got hot early before taking out the Green Wave in the opening round of the 7-1A tournament.

St. Al led 12-9 by the end of the first quarter and outscored Cathedral 16-9 in the second to lead 28-18 at half.

Eric Lee led Cathedral with 14 points.