Temple and Belton have been on-again, off-again rivals through the years as one school or the other fluctuated between different classifications.

The foes have been on a recent hiatus, but the rivalry picked up with full-blown steam from start to finish at raucous, packed Wildcat Gym on Friday night.

Temple held Belton scoreless over the final 2 minutes, and DJ Nelson netted his team’s final six points during that time as the Wildcats held off the hard-charging Tigers 73-65 in an energetic non-district game that marked the first time the teams met since 2021 when they split a pair of district meetings.

Ramauhn Brown scored a team-high 19 points with his last bucket providing the game-winning points when he dropped a floater from the lane over 6-foot, 6-inch Belton center Daniel Briscoe after Brown drove through traffic on the left side.