Before the basketball season began in November, the Wellsville-Middletown boys basketball team had to find a way to replace five seniors and two other players who transferred to other schools.

The Tigers found that way by adding five new players to their roster, giving them a total of seven players and guaranteeing them a full roster for the 2023-2024 season. Despite the small roster, the Tigers were able to play 24 games with four tournaments.

But the strong work ethic didn’t help W-M pull off a winning season. The Tigers finished 2-22, their second straight losing season. Their 22 losses were the most since 2011.

W-M had just two returning players, juniors Cooper Henderson and Gage Marshall. Both played on the 2022 squad that placed fourth in the Class 1 state tournament. They were joined by juniors Jonah Slovensky, Aaron Peterson and Brennan Cash and freshmen Shane Joles and Gage Nichols, all of them played basketball at the high school level for the first time.
Henderson was the only Tiger selected on the all-Eastern Missouri Conference team. He earned second-team honors.

W-M lost its first eight games before pulling a 43-40 win over Community R-6 in the consolation semifinals of the New Franklin Tournament on Jan. 4 for its first victory of the season. In that contest, the Tigers came back from a 31-22, third-quarter deficit to pick up the win and avenge a 55-37 loss to Trojans in their season opener on Nov. 21 at home.

W-M got its other victory on Jan. 27, a 42-32 win over Norborne in the consolation finals of the Keytesville Tournament.

The Tigers lost their final 11 games, including an 87-22 loss to Harrisburg on Feb. 20 in a Class 2, District 5 tournament quarterfinal.

W-M lost all but one of its games by double digits. The Tigers’ highest point output this season was 52 points in the 10-point loss to Liberty Christian in a home game on Dec. 19.

Steve Lasman wrapped up his seventh season as W-M coach. He now has an 84-94 record.