The town of Keytesville continues to be good for the Wellsville-Middletown girls basketball team.

The Tigers won the Keytesville Tournament title for the second year in a row after coming from behind to beat the Higbee Tigers 65-58 in the finals on Jan. 27. W-M cruised to a 56-37 win over Higbee in last year’s championship game.

W-M improved to 9-6 and won its season-high fourth straight game with the win over Higbee, which was the top seed in the tournament.
The Tigers finished 3-0 in the six-team, round-robin tournament. They beat Madison 62-9 and Livingston County 60-18 in pool play to advance to the title game against Higbee. Before its game against Madison, W-M hadn’t played in 12 days.

The Tigers competed in the Keytesville tournament for the fourth year in a row and have placed in the top three all four years. They also finished third in 2021 and 2022.

W-M competed in its third tournament of the season. The Tigers also finished fourth in the Montgomery County and New Franklin tournaments.

In the Keytesville championship game, second-seeded W-M came back from a nine-point, third-quarter deficit to knock off Higbee.

The Tigers also improved to 2-1 against their district tournament opponents. They split their two meetings with Community R-6. W-M will compete in the Class 1, District 9 tournament at St. Elizabeth later this season.

Also, the W-M boys basketball team won the consolation championship at Keytesville after beating Norborne 42-32 in the consolation title game on Jan. 27. It was the Tigers’ second win of the season.

W-M began its tournament play on Jan. 22 with a 47-43 loss to Livingston County in the first round. The fifth-seeded Tigers drew a bye in the consolation semifinals.

The Tigers will celebrate senior night on Feb. 1 with a home game against Sturgeon. Jenelle Boeckelman, Meagan Cripe and Bethany Slovensky are the only basketball seniors. Cripe, Shelby Frank and Kristi Hager are the seniors on the cheerleading team.