When the Montgomery County Wildcats squared off against the Centralia Panthers in a Class 3, District 7 girls basketball championship game on Feb. 23 at North Callaway High School, they were trying to accomplish something that has happened four times in the history of the MCHS athletic program – win three straight district titles.

But the Panthers had other ideas.

Centralia celebrated its first district championship since 1992 after beating MCHS 47-39 in the first meeting between the two schools since 2009. The Panthers stormed to an 8-0 lead in the first quarter and never looked back.

“They came out ready to go,” MCHS coach Joe Basinger said. “We didn’t respond well.”

The Wildcats finished their season at 22-6, their seventh straight winning season. After the game, the senior class of Claire Cobb, Madi Polston, Malia Rodgers, Maddy Queathem and Olivia Shaw received the second-place district championship plaque.

Basinger said saying goodbye to the seniors after the game was tough.

“The last thing I told them was I loved them like they were my own kids,” Basinger said. “The amount of time I spent in the gym and in the vehicle with those kids was astronomical. When you spend that much time with them, they become your own. You worry about them on the weekends and you worry about them when they are away from you. You have to see them hurt. They’re hurting right now, but they have nothing to be ashamed of.”

MCHS and Centralia won their semifinal games on Feb. 21, setting up a contest of two top-10 teams in the state in the district finals. The Wildcats were ranked third, while the Panthers were the eighth-ranked team.

The district championship game had a state tournament-like atmosphere. There was a long line of people trying to get into the building 15 minutes before gametime and both sides of the gym were full by tipoff.

“I have a lot of people who weren’t from Montgomery or Centralia texting me and calling me and telling me that they were coming,” Basinger said. “I knew it was going to be that type of atmosphere. It sucks to lose, but not every kid gets to play in an atmosphere like that. That’s something pretty special.”

Centralia, which improved to 23-4 with the win over MCHS, is enjoying its fourth straight winning season. A week before the district finals, the Panthers won the Clarence Cannon Conference, their first league title since 1978.

“They’re good,” Basinger said. “I knew they were good. Everybody knew they were good. They’re long and they defend well. They got multiple threats on the floor.”

Had the Wildcats won, they would have joined the football and volleyball teams as the only squads at MCHS to win three consecutive district titles. The football team won three straight district titles from 1986-1988 and four straight from 2002-2005. The volleyball squad captured three crowns in a row from 1991-93 and four in a row from 1995-98.

Basinger, who wrapped up his eighth season as coach, said when Centralia was added to the district field this year, he knew winning a third straight district championship was going to be a challenge for his team.

“When district (assignments) came out, I had a good feeling that if we did the things that we needed to do, it would be the two of us in the district final and that was the way it shook out,” Basinger said.

Centralia was dropped to Class 3 after competing in Class 4 last year. The Panthers lost to Moberly in the district finals in 2023.

Second-year Centralia coach Megan Brinkmann said she knew things weren’t going to be easy for her team in district play once she found out the Wildcats drew the top seed in the seven-team tournament.

“When I saw Montgomery there, I was like, ‘Man, they’re the ones to beat.’ We were lucky enough to get there,” said Brinkmann, whose team was seeded second. “They’ve been back-to-back champs in this district, so they know what it takes to win and they know what it takes to compete. Joe Basinger and I call each other all year. Joe is a fantastic coach. We’re good friends. We usually share film and stuff. But this year, I was like, ‘Eh, I don’t know how much we would share.’”

The Panthers led 8-0 with 2:28 left in the first quarter before Aliviah Fischer scored the Wildcats’ first points with a layup 18 seconds later. Centralia led 14-3 after the first quarter and 20-8 at halftime.

“They had a good lead on us in the first quarter and we couldn’t catch up,” MCHS freshman Aubrey Janes said.

The Wildcats trailed by as many as 14 in the second half before they rallied to cut it to five points, 43-38, with 2:41 to go in the game on a three-pointer by Queathem. That’s as close as they would get.

Rodgers, who finished her career as the Wildcats’ all-time leading scorer, led the Wildcats with 11 points, followed by Janes, Shaw and Queathem with six points apiece, Polston and Fischer with four apiece and Cobb with two.

Janes said she enjoyed her time with her team despite the loss in the district finals.

“It was a great experience,” the freshman said. “I never thought I would be on this team and on varsity in my freshman year. It was fun and it is something I’ll never forget.”