Keigan Hall left Montgomery County High School with another medal around her neck on Dec. 2.

The Wellsville-Middletown junior was voted on the all-Montgomery County Invitational Tournament girls team for the second year in a row for her strong play. She scored 31 points in three games and helped the Tigers place fourth.

Hall joined an all-tournament team that included Malia Rodgers and Maddy Queathem of Montgomery County, Ava Hughes of Hermann, Charleigh Spoonster of Clopton and Aubri Meyer of New Haven. They all were recognized at halfcourt in front of a large crowd at Ballew & Snell Court.

“It’s nice, but it’s a little embarrassing because I don’t like all of the people staring,” Hall said.

Last year, Hall received her first all-tournament award at Montgomery County after scoring 33 points in three games, including a 21-point effort over Mexico in the first round.

This year, Hall was selected to the all-tournament team after finishing as the Tigers’ leading scorer in the eight-team tournament.

“I’m thankful,” Hall said. “It’s a nice opportunity to get it for the second year in a row.”

But Hall was surprised that she was named an all-tournament selection again.

“I thought Hallie (Guzy) or Bethany (Slovensky) would get it this year,” the junior said.

The Tigers finished fourth in the Montgomery County tournament for the second year in a row. They beat Fulton 57-38 in a first-round game at Montgomery County Middle School on Nov. 27 before losing to Hermann 62-59 in the semifinals on Nov. 29 and Clopton 69-37 in the third-place game on Dec. 2.

Against Hermann, the Tigers stormed to a 15-4 first-quarter lead before the Bearcats rallied to win the game. Against Clopton, W-M led 19-17 late in the second quarter before the Hawks came back to take a 31-26 halftime lead they would never relinquish.

“I’m proud of my girls,” W-M coach Todd Cripe said. “I love them to death. They work hard for me. We’ve got to do some things a little bit better. This (tournament) is a good thing for us to kind of gauge where we’re at and be able to get better towards the end of the season because there are going to be teams that are going to put a little pressure on us.”

Clopton outscored W-M 36-11 in the second half. The Hawks forced 13 turnovers in the third quarter.

“When that snowball starts at the top and starts rolling downhill, it’s pretty tough,” Cripe said. “That’s what the third quarter felt like. That was probably the longest third quarter of my 30-year coaching career.”

Hall finished with seven points against Fulton, 15 against Hermann and nine against Clopton. She scored 17 points in the Tigers’ 41-34 win over Community R-6 in their season opener on Nov. 21.

“Keigan plays hard for me,” Cripe said.

Sophomore Helenea McKenzie was the Tigers’ second-leading scorer in the tournament with 30 points, all of them were from off the bench. She had a 13-point effort against Hermann.

“Helanea played a great game for us against Hermann,” Cripe said. “She is getting more and more physical and more and more comfortable in taking the ball to the rim.”

Slovensky finished with 25 points in the tournament. She had 11 points against Fulton, including a 3-pointer from halfcourt as time expired in the first half, and 10 against Clopton.

W-M dropped to 2-2 with the loss to Clopton. The Tigers will play the Hawks again on Feb. 5 at Clopton.

Also, the W-M boys finished 0-3 in the Montgomery County tournament, losing to eventual champion Mexico 75-10 in the first round, Clopton 56-34 in the consolation semifinals and New Haven 35-23 in the seventh-place game. Cooper Henderson was the Tigers’ leading scorer with 21 points and Gage Marshall finished with 20, including 16 against Clopton.

Both W-M boys and girls teams were scheduled to play home games on Dec. 5. The girls played Silex in their Eastern Missouri Conference opener, while the boys took on Chamois.