Several months ago, Colby Ellis turned in an outstanding football season that included his first all-state award and a district championship.

Now, the Montgomery County senior is looking to carry that success into basketball.

So far, after two months, Ellis has been one of the valuable players for the Wildcats. He enjoyed his best moment of his senior season on Jan. 16, when he scored the game-winning points in his team’s 54-52 win over the Russellville Indians in the South Callaway tournament finals. 

With the Wildcats trailing 52-51, Ellis scored a layup with 25 seconds left in the game to give his team the one-point lead. He received a pass from sophomore Jackson Benney at the paint and scored the basket. 

“It was an easy shot,” Ellis said. “I’ve been shooting it since I was in second grade.”

The Wildcats won their seventh South Callaway title and their fifth in the last seven years. They finished 3-0 in the six-team tournament. MCHS, which was seeded second, defeated Vienna and South Callaway in pool play to advance to the championship.

“We knew it was a winnable tournament,” Ellis said. “The biggest thing is we performed.”

Also on Saturday, the MCHS girls finished third in the South Callaway tournament after beating Hermann 49-44 in the third-place game. The Wildcats avenged the 46-43 loss to the Bearcats in the Montgomery County Invitational semifinals in December.

“Considering it was one of our rival teams, our energy kind of picked up and we were there for each other,” MCHS sophomore Emma Rodgers said.

Rodgers scored a career-high 30 points and junior Aubrey Janes added 14 to lead the Wildcats, who came back from a seven-point, second-quarter deficit to pull off the win over Hermann.

Both Rodgers and Janes were named to the all-tournament team. Rodgers finished with 64 points and Janes had 42 in the tournament. Janes earned all-tournament honors at South Callaway for the second straight year.

In the boys tournament, MCHS senior Adrian Combs was voted the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. He scored 45 points in three games, including a pair of 18-point efforts against Vienna and South Callaway.

Senior Wyatt March finished with a team-high 19 points against Russellville and earned all-tournament honors. He extended the Wildcats’ lead to 54-52 by hitting a free throw with 5.9 seconds left.

Ellis finished with eight points, including the big bucket with 25 seconds to go. He said he was thrilled to be part of a South Callaway tournament championship team for the first time.

“It’s good because we won a lot of basketball throughout our history but we have never been contributors,” Ellis said. “Now that we’re all contributors, it’s nice.”

MCHS also won South Callaway titles in 2014, 2017, 2020-2021 and 2023-2024. The Wildcats didn’t compete in last year’s tournament.

With the win over Russellville, MCHS improved to 9-5. The team started its season in December with a second-place finish in its own tournament.

“We’re playing good,” Ellis said. “We had a bad stretch, but we’re starting to play a lot better. We’re starting to play together and I think we’re going to keep it rolling.”

Last fall, Ellis earned all-state defensive linebacker after helping the Wildcats win nine games and capture their first district title in 20 years.

This year, Ellis is continuing a basketball career that began when he was in second grade.

“I’ve been alright at it, but nothing special,” said Ellis, who is one of 10 seniors on the team. “I play with a good group of kids. We all have fun playing together.”

Ellis returned from last year’s team that won 28 games and was eliminated in state quarterfinal play. He played in 21 games.

Ellis said he hopes his team turns in a solid postseason in his final high school basketball season. The Wildcats return to South Callaway later in the season to compete in the Class 3, District 7 tournament.

“A lot of these teams (in the South Callaway tournament) are in our district, so my expectation for us is to win the district championship,” Ellis said.

In the girls third-place game, Rodgers scored 17 of her points in the second half. She scored a basket with 5:14 left in the third quarter that gave the Wildcats a 25-24 lead they never relinquished. The basket also started a 9-0 run for MCHS.

With the win over Hermann, the Wildcats improved to 9-6. MCHS, which was seeded third, finished 2-1 in the tournament. The Wildcats beat South Callaway 52-24 in the first round and lost to eventual champion Blair Oaks 54-47 in the semifinals.

The Wildcats will play Hermann again in a first-round game of the Hermann Invitational Tournament on Jan. 26. MCHS drew the No. 5 seed, while Hermann is seeded fourth.

The MCHS boys are seeded fourth and will play fifth-seeded Warrenton in a first-round game on Jan. 27. They are the defending Hermann tournament champions.

Both boys and girls teams were scheduled to play Bowling Green in an Eastern Missouri Conference home game on Jan. 20 at Ballew & Snell Court.