The Wellsville-Middletown girls basketball team had a pair of reasons to celebrate after cruising past Higbee 56-37 in the championship game of the Keytesville Tournament on Jan. 28.

The Tigers not only won their first Keytesville championship in program history, but they also matched their win total of 11 from last year.

W-M finished 3-0 in the seven-team tournament. The Tigers, who were seeded second, also beat host-Keytesville 68-8 in a first-round game on Jan. 23 and third-seeded Madison 56-19 in the semifinals two days later.

The W-M boys didn’t win their third straight Keytesville tournament championship as they fell 57-53 to Higbee in the finals, which was also played on Jan. 28. The Tigers, who were also seeded second, finished 2-1 in the tournament. They beat Keytesville 60-19 in a first-round game on Jan. 23 and Southwest 55-38 in the semifinals.

With the win over Higbee in the championship game, the W-M girls improved to 11-6 with eight regular season games to go. They were scheduled to play Elsberry in a home game on Jan. 31. W-M has a road game against Sturgeon on Feb. 2 and a home game against Louisiana on Feb. 3.

In the Keytesville finals, the Tigers came back from a five-point, second-quarter deficit to beat top-seeded Higbee, which won last year’s championship. W-M also beat Higbee for the third straight meeting. Last year, the Tigers knocked off the Randolph County school 51-49 in the Class 1, District 10 semifinals at Pilot Grove.

W-M, which finished third in the Keytesville tournament in each of the last two years, led 21-20 at halftime. The Tigers increased that lead to 38-20 after starting the third quarter with a 17-0 run.

Sophomore Hallie Guzy scored nine points during that run and finished with a team-high 15 points.

Junior Bethany Slovensky finished with 10 points. She gave the Tigers the lead for good after hitting a free throw with 41 seconds left that broke a 20-20 tie.

Senior Natalie Boeckelman finished with six points and 13 rebounds and junior Jenelle Boeckelman and sophomore Indica Scott each had six points for the Tigers, who had a fourth-place finish at the Montgomery County Invitational earlier in the season.

The win also gave the Tigers a 3-1 record against their district opponents. They will be playing in the Class 1, District 10 tournament at Madison later in the season.
The W-M boys dropped to 8-8 with the loss to Higbee in the Keytesville finals. It was a rematch of last year’s Class 1, District 10 championship game at Pilot Grove.

Last year, the Tigers beat Higbee 67-60 in the Keytesville championship game. They beat Southwest in the 2021 finals for their first tournament championship.

In this year’s finals, W-M had an eight-point lead with 1:16 left in the third quarter before top-seeded Higbee rallied to win its first Keytesville title.

Sophomore Carson Huff finished with 21 points, including 14 in the first half. He gave the Tigers a 48-47 lead with a basket with 3:01 left in the game before Higbee came back with an 8-0 run to pull away from W-M.

Senior Logan Pursifull finished with a double-double, scoring 12 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. He scored a basket late in the second quarter to give the Tigers a 25-23 lead.

Sophomore Cooper Henderson finished with six points off the bench. With 1:16 remaining in the third, he made a steal and scored a layup to give the Tigers a 42-34 lead that later evaporated in the fourth quarter.

W-M dropped to 8-9 after losing to Elsberry on Jan. 31. The Tigers are looking to finish with their third straight winning season.