The Wellsville-Middletown boys basketball team celebrated another victory over the New Haven Shamrocks on Dec. 2.

This time, it helped the Tigers finish seventh place in the Montgomery County Invitational for the second year in a row.

Eighth-seeded W-M cruised to a 45-13 win over the seventh-seeded Shamrocks in the seventh-place game of the eight-team tournament at Montgomery County Middle School. The Tigers also picked up their first win of the season.

“I thought it was a fun team win and we all played well together,” W-M sophomore Carson Huff said.

W-M lost to Community R-6 in its season opener on Nov. 22 and dropped to Mexico and Clopton in its first two games before coming out on top against New Haven.

Now, the Tigers are hoping to celebrate their third straight winning season. They won 20 games last year and 19 the year before.

“We need to keep playing good defense and good team ball and we’ll be good,” Huff said. 

Last year, the Tigers beat Clopton 36-35 in the MCHS tournament seventh-place game. Against New Haven in this year’s seventh-place game, W-M stormed to an 18-5 lead after the first quarter and never looked back. The Tigers led 33-9 at halftime.

“We came out hot and started hitting shots,” said Huff, who hit the game-winning basket against Clopton in the 2021 seventh-place game. “We had great passes from everybody.”

Senior CJ Curd said he was happy that his team defeated a New Haven squad that featured a six-foot-five junior named Andy Noelke.

“Going into the game, we knew that he was tall and we knew that we had to help down,” Curd said. “So anytime the ball went into the post, we choked him and we were hoping to get him to turn over the ball or get some misses so we could get some boards.”

The Tigers started tournament play on Nov. 29 with a 66-29 loss to top-seeded Mexico in the first round. Two days later, they lost to fourth-seeded Clopton 64-34 in the consolation semifinals.

“The whole Mexico team hit shots,” Curd said. “We played with them in the first quarter and the first half, but they started pulling away at the end. Against Clopton, we went into it knowing it was a district game. We played how we should have. There were some shots that didn’t fall (for us) and they were hitting shots the whole night.”

W-M’s 45 points against New Haven marked its biggest offensive output of the season.

“I feel like we played like we executed as we should have,” Curd said. “We had some little bumps at the start, but we’re getting through them and I’m glad that we are. We played like how Wellsville played tonight. We were patient and disciplined like we have always been. I’m glad we’re starting to do that again.”

Senior Dylan Alsop scored a team-high 16 points, including 12 in the first half. He finished as the Tigers’ leading scorer in the MCHS tournament with 34 points. Alsop had eight against Mexico in the first round and 10 against Clopton in the consolation semifinals.

Huff finished with 14 points with two 3-pointers against the Shamrocks. He had 25 in the tournament.

W-M defeated the Shamrocks for the third straight meeting. The Tigers will play New Haven again on Jan. 20 at home.