After three months, Hallie Guzy is happy to be a part of an outstanding Wellsville-Middletown girls basketball team.

“I feel like we’re playing really good right now,” the sophomore said. “It’s going better than I expected.”

Guzy is helping the Tigers enjoy their best season in many years. After beating the Louisiana Bulldogs 47-32 at home on Feb. 3, W-M improved to 13-7 and clinched its first .500 season since 2010.

“I think it’s great,” Guzy said. “We’ve been playing really well. Our team is getting along well. I feel like this has been a good year for us. I think we’re going to go far.”

The W-M boys are shooting for a .500 record as their regular season comes down to their final weeks. They beat Louisiana 58-49 on Feb. 3 for their first Eastern Missouri Conference victory of the season. W-M improved to 9-10 overall and 1-4 in EMO play.

“It was such a big win for us,” W-M coach Steve Lasman said. “Louisiana is a good team. This is a team that took Elsberry to overtime and took Van-Far to a one-point game.”

Sophomore Carson Huff scored 18 points, including 15 points in the second half, senior Logan Pursifull finished with 16 points and senior Dylan Alsop added 11 for the Tigers, who snapped a three-game losing streak.

W-M bounced back from a 59-46 loss to Sturgeon the previous night.

“I have never seen our kids down so much after that game,” Lasman said. “They just bounced back.”

Both girls and boys teams were scheduled to play Clopton on Feb. 6 and Van-Far on Feb. 7. They have a road game against Bowling Green on Feb. 10.

Against Louisiana, the W-M girls came back from a 10-3, first-quarter deficit to win their second EMO game of the season. Leading 29-28 at the midway point of the third quarter, W-M went on a 15-0 run that carried into the fourth.

Junior Bethany Slovensky scored 15 points and Guzy and junior Meagan Cripe each had eight points for the Tigers, who were coming off a 32-31 win over Sturgeon on the road the night before.

“I felt like it was a good win,” Guzy said. “We’ve been playing well. We’ve been playing good defense and scoring well. I feel like we’re on a roll right now.”

The Tigers surpassed their win total of 11 from last year. After starting off 3-4, W-M won 10 of its last 13 games, including a five-game winning streak. The team also captured its first Keytesville Tournament championship on Jan. 28.

“I think the (Keytesville) championship was a big motivator for the rest of the season,” Guzy said. “We won by like 20 points. I think it’s really good for us to win right now and keep going.”

Guzy has been one of the key players in the Tigers’ successful season. On Dec. 20, she scored 29 points to lift the Tigers to a 55-47 win over Liberty Christian Academy just four days after missing the Pink Out contest against Montgomery County due to influenza. She also scored a team-high 15 points in W-M’s 56-37 win over Higbee in the championship game on Jan. 28.

The sophomore said she was surprised with her performance against Liberty Christian. She scored 16 of her points in the second half.

“I really didn’t know I scored that much,” Guzy said.

Guzy is back for another season for the Tigers after finishing as one of the team’s top scorers in her freshman year. Last year, she led W-M in scoring in the Class 1, District 10 tournament with 49 points in three games.

“I’ve been looking forward to (this year),” Guzy said. “I expected this team to do well. We have a good team going. I love playing with them.”