With seven consecutive winning seasons and five straight Eastern Missouri Conference titles, the Montgomery County girls basketball program is enjoying its best run since the 1990s.

This winter, the Wildcats are hoping to continue that success with just eight girls on the roster.

Senior Aliviah Fischer, sophomores Khloe Kribbs, Aubrey Janes, Kaylee Daume and Reaghan Hemeyer and freshmen Emma Rodgers, Kendra Rakers and Addie Schroer make up the varsity roster. A year ago, the Wildcats had 16 players on the varsity and junior varsity teams. With that number cut into half this year, MCHS is not fielding a JV team.

“It’s tough,” MCHS coach Joe Basinger said. “It’s not an ideal situation. I feel bad for the girls because they don’t get the opportunities to grow like they should through the week. I told them on the first day of practice that we can’t dwell on it. It is what it is. If they don’t want to be with us, that’s OK. We’ll find ways to get around that.”

The Wildcats started their 2024-25 season on Nov. 22 on a down note, losing to the Monroe City Panthers 51-26 on the road. It’s the first season-opening loss for MCHS since 2015, when it fell 57-26 to Winfield. The Wildcats won their season opener in each of the last eight years.

Out of the eight players, six of them participated in their first varsity game. They were Daume, Kribbs, Hemeyer, Rodgers, Rakers and Schroer.

“These girls needed to feel the excitement, the lights and atmosphere of a varsity game,” Basinger said. “Most of them have never been through that. They needed to feel what those nerves felt like and what the speed of the game was. I told them not to push the panic button. We’re going to be OK.”

The Wildcats lost their entire starting lineup – Malia Rodgers, Madi Polston, Maddy Queathem, Claire Cobb and Olivia Shaw – to graduation. Fischer, Janes, Rodgers, Daume and Kribbs made up the starting lineup against Monroe City.

MCHS got off to a strong start, storming to a 6-0 lead before Monroe City came back with an 18-0 run that carried into the second quarter and never looked back.

“Obviously, they came out really well, but they have to understand that they have to keep that level of intensity and level of focus for 32 minutes,” Basinger said. “We came out well and then things started falling apart for us a little bit in the second quarter.”

Rodgers, who was coming off an outstanding cross country season that included a trip to the state meet, scored 12 points with three 3-pointers. She gave the Wildcats a 3-0 lead with trey with 6:11 remaining in the first quarter.

“Emma played decently,” Basinger said. “She scored the basketball for us.”

Kribbs scored six, including a basket with 4:08 left in the first quarter that gave the Wildcats the 6-0 lead. Last year, she helped the JV team lose only one game.

“Khloe is going to be a big asset to us,” Basinger said. “She’s an athletic and strong girl. She just has to keep working.”

Daume scored a point in her first varsity game. Her aunt, Erica, was the Wildcats’ all-time leading scorer with 1,300 points until Malia Rodgers broke that mark last year.

“Kaylee had a rough go at it,” Basinger said. “She tore her ACL in April of her eighth-grade year playing travel basketball. She finally got cleared last year as a freshman in January. Before she even played a game, she got appendicitis and was out until the beginning of February. She has a ton of upside. She doesn’t have a lot of high school basketball experience because of what she went through last year. But I have a ton of belief in Kaylee.”

Fischer and Janes are the only returning players from last year’s team that won 22 games, placed first in two regular season tournaments and captured an EMO title. Against Monroe City, Janes scored seven points, while Fischer was held scoreless.

“We’ve got to find ways to get Aubrey and Aliviah going so we can have a three-way attack on offense,” Basinger said. “I’ve got to do a better job of getting the ball to Aliviah in spots where she can be an asset to us offensively. Aubrey threw a lot of good shots tonight. She just couldn’t get anything to fall. She’ll get things to fall. She’s too good of a basketball player not to.”