After the Montgomery County girls basketball team ended its regular season with a 50-34 loss to the Moberly Spartans on Feb. 16 at Ballew & Snell Court, players walked toward the bleachers and said thank you to the fans.

The Wildcats appreciated the fans for supporting them during their outstanding 2022-23 regular season. MCHS finished its regular season at 20-6, won the Eastern Missouri Conference title for the fourth year in a row and placed second in three tournaments.

“We haven’t done it in the past,” MCHS junior Malia Rodgers said. “Honestly, it was necessary. The fans are a big part of what we do. They keep us going. Their support means everything. I felt like we had a lot more girls fans this year than we ever had in the past. Their support is just great, so we have to thank them for that.”

Now, the Wildcats are hoping to turn in another strong postseason. MCHS will begin its postseason at 6 p.m. on Feb. 23 against Tolton Catholic in a Class 3, District 7 tournament semifinal game at South Callaway High School. The winner plays for a district title at 3 p.m. on Feb. 25.

The Wildcats, the top seed in the six-team tournament, will look to win their second straight district championship.

“It’s very exciting,” Rodgers said. “It means everyone is coming after us, though. Hopefully, we can pull it off like we did last year. That was pretty cool. We’ll have some tough games. We can’t take any game for granted because it’s districts and it’s one and done, so we have to be ready.”

The Wildcats will finish with a 20-win season for the third year in a row, making it the first time since 1991-93 they will accomplish that feat. MCHS won its 20th game after beating Elsberry 36-18 on Feb. 13 in a battle of undefeated conference teams on the road, clinching the Wildcats the conference title.

MCHS finished its EMO play at 10-0 and extended its league winning streak to 41 games.

“We knew it was going to be a hard game coming into Elsberry because they were on a 19-game winning streak,” Rodgers said. “We came in very focused and very ready. For the seniors, they never lost a conference game, so it was important to us that we pulled one out for them.”

On Feb. 16 against Moberly, seniors Carissa Doyle, Bailey Fischer, Carson Flake and Maddie Wisdom played their final home game. Unfortunately, the Wildcats didn’t pull off the win for the seniors as the Spartans beat MCHS for the second year in a row.

“They’re a good basketball team,” MCHS coach Joe Basinger said. “We knew they were a good basketball team coming into it. They have one of the best players we’ve seen all year in Grace Billington. She’s going to Murray State. She’s a Division I basketball player for a reason. They were able to definitely get us out of our game, that’s for sure.”

After the game, Basinger gave his team a pep talk about focusing on the postseason. No MCHS team has won back-to-back district titles.

“I told them that this could do one or two things,” Basinger said. “This can either refocus us and make us realize what we need to do to get better or it could tear us apart. That was kind of the message. I hope that they do the first part. I think they will.”

Despite scoring just five points against Moberly, Rodgers is the Wildcats’ leading scorer at 15.3 points per game. After hitting a three-pointer with 7:41 left in the third, junior Maddy Queathem set a new single-season record for most treys with 62, breaking her own mark of 61 from last year, and is averaging 11 points per game.

Basinger was happy to see Queathem set a new school record in the final regular season game.

“She earned it,” Basinger said. “She’s on everybody’s scouting report. She shot it and shot it well. I’m happy for her.”