For the first time in seven years, the Montgomery County boys basketball team earned the top seed in its own tournament.

The Wildcats were selected as the No. 1 seed in the boys division of this year’s Montgomery County Basketball Invitational when seedings and pairings were announced on Nov. 16. They will take on cross-county rival Wellsville-Middletown in a first-round game at 6 p.m. on Dec. 3 at Ballew & Snell Court.

The annual MCHS tournament will run from Dec. 2-7. The girls tournament will start on Dec. 2. Seventh-place and consolation games will be played on Dec. 6 and third-place and championship games will be played the following night. Games will be played at both Ballew & Snell Court and the Montgomery County Middle School gymnasium. The boys tournament will be in its 54th year, while the girls tournament will be its 44th.

The MCHS boys will look to win their eighth tournament championship and their first since 2013. They won championships in the first four years of the tournament from 1971-74.

The last time MCHS was the No. 1 seed in the boys bracket was in 2017, but it lost to Fulton in the finals.

Last year, the Wildcats made their first championship game appearance since ‘17, but lost to top-seeded Mexico 58-54 to finish runner-up for the seventh time. They beat New Haven 89-21 in a first-round game and 70-54 in the semifinals to advance to the finals.

This year, MCHS returns eight players from last year’s team that finished with 25 victories and placed fourth in the Class 3 Show-Me Showdown.

One of those players, senior Clayton Parker, earned tournament MVP honors last year after scoring 63 points in three games in three games, including 26 against Mexico in the finals. He also reached the 1,000-point mark of his career against the Bulldogs.

The Wildcats are the defending champions in the girls division. They are the No. 3 seed and will take on sixth-seeded Fulton at 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 2 at Ballew & Snell Court.

Last year, the MCHS girls captured their first tournament championship in 26 years by topping Hermann 73-47 in the title game. This year, they lost five players to graduation, including tournament MVP Malia Rodgers.
Clopton, which has six tournament titles, is the No. 1 seed in the girls bracket.

Also in the girls tournament, W-M is the No. 7 seed and will play second-seeded Hermann at 6 p.m. on Dec. 2 at Ballew & Snell Court. Last year, the Tigers finished fourth in the MCHS tournament for the second year in a row after losing to Clopton 69-37 in the third-place game.

The W-M girls bring back five players from last year, including senior Keigan Hall, who was named to the all-MCHS tournament team in each of the last two years.

The W-M boys finished 0-3 in last year’s MCHS tournament. The Tigers bring back six returning players, including senior Cooper Henderson, who was the Tigers’ leading scorer in the MCHS tournament with 21 points and went on to turn in a banner junior season that included an all-Eastern Missouri Conference award.