Five days after getting his 100th victory as head coach of the Montgomery County girls basketball team, Joe Basinger was looking to accomplish another big feat on Dec. 3 – winning his first Montgomery County Invitational championship.

But Basinger came up one point short.

The Wildcats finished second in the MCHS tournament for the second straight year after falling to the Hermann Bearcats 32-31 in the title game at Ballew & Snell Court. It’s also the fourth time MCHS finished second in its own tournament.

After the game, all of the players were pretty upset.

“We came out with high hopes,” MCHS junior Malia Rodgers said. “To not win is frustrating, but we’ll bounce back. It’s the beginning of the season.”

MCHS was the No. 1 seed in the eight-team tournament. The Wildcats beat Bowling Green 57-31 in the first round on Nov. 28 and knocked off New Haven 40-33 in the semifinals on Nov. 30.

Basinger hit the century mark with the Wildcats’ victory over Bowling Green. Going into MCHS’ road game against California on Dec. 6, Basinger has a 101-66 record since he took over the program in 2016.

“It means that I had a run of really good kids here at Montgomery,” Basinger said. “It was a cool moment. I look back on it and I think about the kids who went through the program.”

During his tenure as coach, Basinger worked with outstanding players such as Anna Henke (the current assistant coach), Brooke Oden, Kayla Schmidt, Renee Finke, Taylor Flake and Sam Queathem. He also coached his team to three Eastern Missouri Conference titles and one district championship.

“I had the opportunity to coach a lot of really cool kids here,” Basinger said. “I built some great relationships.”

Basinger’s team came up short of winning its first MCHS tournament title since 1997. The 31 points marked a season low for the Wildcats, who dropped to 3-1.

“That one hurts bad,” Basinger said. “We just didn’t play well.”

Rodgers said her team set its sights on beating the Bearcats again. Last year, MCHS topped Hermann in the district championship game at South Callaway.

“The game plan was to come out, play hard and win a basketball game,” Rodgers said. “At the end of the day, if that doesn’t happen, we just keep working.”

Ava Hughes and Holly Heldt each had 13 points to lead second-seeded Hermann, which won its 12th tournament title and its fifth in the last six years.

Hughes ran the length of the court and scored the game-winning layup with seven seconds left.

“She was able to step through,” Basinger said. “She’s a good player. She made a great play.”

MCHS junior Maddy Queathem attempted to win the game on a 3-pointer. But her shot was blocked by Heldt as time expired.

Rodgers earned the tournament’s Most Valuable Player honors for the second year in a row after scoring 53 points in three games, including 16 against Hermann.

“She’d rather win the tournament than be MVP,” Basinger said. “She doesn’t care about that. She cares about winning the basketball game.”

Queathem scored nine against Hermann and 36 for the tournament, earning her all-tournament honors.

Senior Carson Flake gave the Wildcats a 31-30 lead on a jumper with 17 seconds remaining. It was her only basket in the game.

“Carson has been battling a lot this week,” Basinger said. “She was sick. She hasn’t been with us as much this week. I’m very happy that she hit that shot to put us ahead. We’ll be looking forward to getting her back full speed.”

The Wildcats will play Hermann again on Jan. 5 at home.