The Montgomery County girls basketball team celebrated its first win at Ballew & Snell Court in the 2025-26 season after cruising past the New Haven Shamrocks 59-36 on Dec. 11. 

The Wildcats turned in their largest offensive output of the season to beat New Haven for the second time in less than a week. MCHS beat the Franklin County school 43-25 in the consolation semifinals of the Montgomery County Invitational Tournament at Montgomery County Middle School on Dec. 5.

The Wildcats improved to 4-2 and won their fourth game in a row. They were scheduled to start their Eastern Missouri Conference season on Dec. 15 with a road game against Silex. They will return to Ballew & Snell Court on Dec. 19, when they take on the Wellsville-Middletown Tigers in the annual Pink Out game.

MCHS was coming off a thrilling, 42-41 win over the Southern Boone Eagles on the road on Dec. 9. In that contest, junior Reaghan Hemeyer hit a free throw with 2.7 seconds left in the game that broke a 41-41 tie and turned out to be the game-winning point. Two years ago, the Wildcats beat Southern Boone in the Sophie Cunningham Classic at Columbia College.

MCHS played two other games at Ballew & Snell Court, but lost both of them. The Wildcats lost to Monroe City 45-42 in their season opener on Nov. 21 and dropped to Hermann 46-43 in first-round game of the Montgomery County tournament on Dec. 3. 

Against Monroe City, MCHS lost on a 3-point shot by Monroe City’s Naaron Hays as time expired. Against Hermann, the Wildcats led 42-40 with less than six minutes left in the game before the Bearcats rallied to win.

With the loss to Hermann, MCHS played its next two games of the MCHS tournament at the middle school gymnasium.

Now, the Wildcats are looking to turn in another successful season at their home floor this winter. They have just five home games remaining.

Besides the contest against W-M, MCHS also has home contests against Bowling Green on Jan. 20, Van-Far on Feb. 2, Mark Twain on Feb. 10 and Elsberry on Feb. 16. All of the games will be played at Ballew & Snell Court.

Last year, the Wildcats finished 6-3 at home, including a 40-32 win over North Callaway in a senior night game that clinched them their eighth straight winning season. MCHS finished 15-12 in the 2024-25 season.

The Wildcats got another strong performance from their top scoring duo in junior Aubrey Janes and sophomore Emma Rodgers in the win over New Haven on Dec. 11. They combined to score 49 points against the Shamrocks.

Janes led the way with 25 points, including 18 in the first half. She finished two points shy from her season-high 27 points she scored against Fulton in the consolation finals of the MCHS tournament. Janes was 10 for 11 from the free-throw line and hit five 3-pointers.

Rodgers finished with 24 points, making it the second straight game she scored 20 points or more. She poured in 20 against Southern Boone. Rodgers went 7 for 7 from the charity stripe.

Junior Kaylee Daume finished with six points, Hemeyer had two and junior Reese Hill and freshman Abbi Knoepflein each had a point for the Wildcats, who led 33-20 at halftime.

After starting their season with back-to-back losses to Monroe City and Hermann, the Wildcats got their first win after beating New Haven in the MCHS tournament. In that contest, MCHS had seven players score at least one point. Rodgers led the team with 12 points, including nine in the first half.