Wellsville-Middletown’s basketball season officially came to an end on Feb. 26.
And so did the high school basketball careers of eight seniors.

Both boys and girls teams were eliminated in district tournament play. The boys lost 77-42 to Cairo Bearcats in a Class 1, District 10 semifinal game on Feb. 26. The girls fell 59-46 to the Community R-6 Trojans in a Class 1, District 9 quarterfinal contest the night before.

Both district tournaments were held at Madison High School, located an hour northwest of the W-M campus. The last two years, the W-M boys and girls teams played in separate district tournaments.

The W-M boys finished their season at 7-20. They started their season on Nov. 26 with a win over Community. A year ago, they won just two games.
After winning 13 games last year, the W-M girls finished 6-21, their first 20-loss season since 2019. They were coming off a 55-54 win over Wright City in their regular season finale on Feb. 20, their only Eastern Missouri Conference win of the season.

W-M seniors Brennan Cash, Julia Dias, Hallie Guzy, Keigan Hall, Cooper Henderson, Gage Marshall, Jonah Slovensky and Alivia Stewart saw their high school basketball careers come to an end at districts. Out of the eight seniors, four of them – Guzy, Hall, Henderson and Marshall – played basketball for the Tigers all four years.

The W-M boys started district tournament play on Feb. 24 with a 59-31 win over Bevier in a quarterfinal game. They were eliminated in the Class 2 district quarterfinals in each of the last two years.

W-M defeated Bevier for the second time this season. The Tigers cruised past the Wildcats 54-21 in the third-place game of the Keytesville Tournament on Feb. 1.

But W-M came up one win short of its first district final appearance in three years as it fell to the top-seeded Cairo in the semifinals. Two years ago, the Tigers lost to the Bearcats 72-44 in a Class 2, District 5 quarterfinal game in Sturgeon.

W-M was the No. 4 seed in the seven-team district tournament.

Marshall was the Tigers’ top scorer in districts with 40 points. He finished with 25 points, including 15 in the first half, in the victory over Bevier. He turned in a 15-point effort in the loss to Cairo.

Henderson finished with 19 points against Bevier, but scored just four against Cairo. Slovensky had eight points each against Bevier and Cairo and Cash had two points against the Bearcats.

With the loss to Community in the district quarterfinals, the W-M girls ended their season the same way it started. They began their season on Nov. 26 with a 45-21 loss to the Trojans.

Hall turned in a strong effort in the losing cause, scoring 25 points, including 19 in the second half. Guzy finished with five points.

Sophomore Elly Cash was also in double figures for the Tigers, finishing with 14 points with two 3-pointers.

W-M was the No. 6 seed in the tournament.