The Montgomery County boys basketball team has another large senior class this winter.

The Wildcats have 10 seniors on their team, seven are back from last year’s team that won 28 games and came within a whisker of going back to the Class 3 Show-Me Showdown.

This year, the seniors are looking to wrap up their careers at MCHS by helping their team finish with their seventh straight winning season. So far, they are helping the Wildcats get off to a good start. 

The seniors led their team to a 91-11 victory over the Wellsville-Middletown Tigers in the annual Pink Out contest on Dec. 19 at Ballew & Snell Court. All of the seniors scored at least one point.

Their efforts helped the Wildcats improve to 5-2 overall and 3-0 in Eastern Missouri Conference play.

Adrian Combs, Colby Ellis, Kenny Johnson, Lyric Kemp, Cameron Knapp, Wyatt March, Chase Queathem, Karter Reagan, Cooper Sellenriek and Seth Walton make up the Wildcats’ senior class. Combs, Ellis, Kemp, Queathem and Walton played all four years with the program.

Besides the win over W-M, the seniors also helped the Wildcats place second in the Montgomery County Invitational Tournament as a No. 6 seed.

“ From the 5-6 games we played, we’ve been playing good together,” Kemp said. “We get along. We have good teamwork together, so I think we’re doing pretty good.”

Also, the MCHS girls beat W-M 53-9, completing the sweep for the Wildcats in the Pink Out contest, which raised money for cancer awareness. It’s the 16th straight year MCHS defeated the Tigers in the Pink Out contest.

Both boys and girls teams earned Traveling Trophies for their efforts. The Traveling Trophy is given to the winners in the Pink Out boys and girls contests.

The Wildcats graduated a talented senior class that included all-state performers Clayton Parker and Andrew Moore as well as Jay and Sean Rodgers, Isaiah Thomas, Tyler Erwin and Tatum Wessel.

Kemp said even though his team lost seven players to graduation, it is setting its sights on continuing its winning ways. The Wildcats have won EMO championships in each of the last three years and captured district titles two years in a row.

“It’s the same thing as last year,” Kemp said. “We’re going to keep doing it. People think that we’re going to downgrade because we lost a lot of players, but deep down in my heart, I think we’re a really good team. We can win the conference. I think we can get districts, if we’re lucky. If we keep playing this way as a team. We hustle and we’re there for each other. I think that’s what a team needs.”

The MCHS seniors combined to score 75 points against the Tigers. Kemp was the Wildcats’ leading scorer with 16 points with four 3-pointers. He hit three of his treys in the third quarter.

Combs and March, who were coming off strong seasons with the football team this fall, each had 12 points. 

Walton, whose mother Pam was the guest speaker of this year’s Pink Out contest, finished with nine points. He scored a basket with just seven seconds into the game.

Reagan had seven points, Ellis and Queathem had five apiece, Sellenriek and Knapp each had three and Johnson scored two. 

The MCHS girls improved to 5-3 overall and 1-1 in EMO play. They bounced back from a 53-46 loss to Silex three days before.

Emma Rodgers scored 25 points and Kaylee Daume added nine to lead the Wildcats, who edged the Tigers 42-39 in last year’s game at W-M.

Andrew Maskey led W-M with five points in the boys contest and Julieanna Dodd was the Tigers’ leading scorer with four points in the girls game.

W-M senior Helanea McKenzie played in her fourth and final Pink Out game.