After Isaac Seabaugh helped his Wellsville-Middletown boys basketball team knock off Montgomery County 36-24 in the Pink Out game on Dec. 17 at Ballew & Snell Court, the first thing he thought about was one of his best friends, Steven Ebers.

Ebers played on the last W-M team that beat Montgomery County on Feb. 1, 2013.

“He’s been a great idol to me, so it means a lot to do it for Wellsville, the team and the coach,” said Seabaugh, a senior. “It was our goal to get it done. We got it done with solid defense. We played basketball like we needed to tonight.”

Seabaugh and the Tigers snapped a nine-game losing streak to the Wildcats. They also improved to 5-2 overall and 1-0 in Eastern Missouri Conference play.

“It was pretty amazing,” W-M junior Jacob Mandrell said. “It was a great feeling.”

W-M came back from a 5-0, first-quarter deficit to beat the Wildcats, whose 24 points marked a season low.

“We were missing layup after layup after layup,” W-M coach Steve Lasman said. “But they’re 16-17 year old kids. They make mistakes. But they never quit. Our kids never quit. In the five years I’ve been here, they never quit. I’m really proud of them.”

The Wildcats dropped to 4-4 overall and 2-1 in EMO play with the loss to the Tigers. Senior Drake Smith scored eight points with two 3-pointers and senior Keenan James added seven to lead MCHS, which had its 22-game conference winning streak snapped.

James hit a 3-pointer early in the second quarter to give the Wildcats an 8-4 lead before the Tigers rallied with a 9-0 run to take a 13-8 lead they never relinquished.

W-M began the third quarter with a 6-0 run to take a 19-10 lead. The Wildcats got within three points, 21-18, early in the fourth quarter, but that’s as close as they would get.

“We beat a very good and a well-coached team,” Lasman said. “Our kids played great defense. We got the game at our tempo. We wanted to play very slow and deliberate. We didn’t want a high-scoring game. That’s not our game.”

After the game, Seabaugh was the first player to hoist the Montgomery County Traveling Trophy. He said he was thrilled that he and his senior teammate, Keaton Mayes, celebrated a victory over Montgomery County for the first time in their high school basketball careers.

“It feels great,” said Seabaugh, who finished with nine points, all of them in the second half. “We have never won it before. Keaton and I were 0 for 3. We were ready to get it done in our senior year. Getting it done was one of our many goals this year.”

W-M got a strong effort from Mandrell. He scored 12 points off the bench, six in each half. He also started the Tigers’ 9-0 run in the second quarter with a basket with 6:47 left.

“Jacob got his opportunity and he played great,” Lasman said. “Without our bench, we wouldn’t have won the game.”

The Tigers extended their winning streak to five games after starting their season with back-to-back losses to Mexico and Bowling Green at the Montgomery County Invitational.

“(The win) is going to help us a lot because we will go in more confident,” Mandrell said. “We’ve just got to build that confidence and keep this flow going.”