After starting the first three games of the season, Zak Rodgers got to play off the bench against the New Haven Shamrocks in the third-place game of the Montgomery County Invitational on Dec. 4.

Still, the Montgomery County junior was determined to turn in a strong performance.

“I came in with the mindset that I’m going to go in and I’m going to go hard, play with my guys and get this win,” Rodgers said.

Rodgers helped the Wildcats capture third place in the tournament for the second year in a row by finishing with an outstanding effort from behind the arc. He nailed a team-high three 3-pointers and finished with 11 points to lead fourth-seeded MCHS to a come-from-behind, 59-44 win over New Haven, the No. 6 seed.

Rodgers finished with six 3-pointers in the three games of the tournament. He also had three treys in the Wildcats’ 50-32 win over Bowling Green in a first-round game on Nov. 30. Rodgers said he worked on improving his perimeter game during the off-season.

“It’s good to see that translate into the games,” Rodgers said.

Rodgers helped the Wildcats finish with 10 three-pointers against New Haven, including five in the second quarter. They had 21 treys in the tournament.

“We have a lot of hard workers on the team,” Rodgers said. “They came in and knew what they had to do and that was to make shots.”

The Wildcats finished 2-1 in the tournament and improved to 2-2 overall. They will be back in action on Dec. 10 with a road game against Silex.

MCHS, the No. 4 seed, advanced to the third-place game after losing to eventual champion Mexico 57-43 in the semifinals on Dec. 2.

Rodgers was one of three players who scored in double figures against New Haven. Senior Ty Leu finished with 13 points off the bench and senior Logan Hutcheson added 10.

MCHS trailed 10-1 after the first six minutes of the game before coming back to beat sixth-seeded New Haven, which upset third-seeded Hermann in the first round. With the game tied at 21-21, senior Ethan Rakers gave the Wildcats the lead for good by making a steal at midcourt and scoring a layup. It was his only basket of the game.

“We stayed patient, which was a word we had on the board,” MCHS coach Scott Kroeger said. “Ethan was the one who brought it up. We had patience We stuck with our offense and got through our rotations on offense a couple of times. We were able to get open shots. We really executed some sets for the first time all year.”

Kroeger changed the starting lineup against the Shamrocks. He decided to start freshmen Clayton Parker and Tyler Erwin in place of Rodgers and Alex Hartman. Rakers, Hutcheson and senior Keenan James were the other starters.

“We had some things going on inside the program like illnesses, so we had a weird starting lineup going on tonight,” Kroeger said. “I thought they did a heck of a job. Obviously, that awards you the good fortune of bringing guys who played a whole lot of minutes off the bench in varsity games.”

Senior Drake Smith played in his first game of the season after missing the first three contests due to an injury he suffered during football season.

“I’m fortunate as a coach to have kids like that because he’s a kid who can play,” Kroeger said. “He wants to play really bad. He’s a kid who could play 12 minutes or he could play 28 minutes. If we win, he’s going to be super happy.”

Parker was the only MCHS player named on the all-tournament team. He scored 27 points in three gam