When the Wellsville-Middletown boys basketball team desperately needed players last year, a couple of juniors came to the rescue.

After graduating five players and losing two players to other schools, the Tigers’ hopes of playing in the 2023-24 season were in jeopardy as they didn’t have a full team.

But the additions of Jonah Slovensky and Brennan Cash helped erase those doubts. After they joined, the Tigers had seven players on their roster.

“Coach (Steve) Lasman really wanted me,” Slovensky said. “I figured that I should do it for him because he really enjoyed having me in junior high.”

“I was going to play in my freshman year, but I decided I didn’t really want to, so I didn’t,” Cash said. “So I heard they weren’t going to have a team and they kept asking me. I said, ‘I’ll do it. It’s not going to hurt me too much.’”

Slovensky and Cash  wrapped up their final seasons with the Tigers. Their season ended with a 77-42 loss to Cairo in a Class 1, District 10 semifinal game on Feb. 26. They are part of a senior class that includes Cooper Henderson and Gage Marshall, who have been with the program all four years.

“It’s a lot of fun,” Cash said. “They’re people I have been friends with for a couple of years. It’s a lot of fun to get to play with my friends and have fun and enjoy playing the sport.”

W-M celebrated senior night on Feb. 17 between the girls and boys games against Silex at Roundtree and Johnson Court. A total of 11 seniors were recognized. Besides the four seniors on the boys basketball team, Hallie Guzy, Keigan Hall, Alivia Stewart and Julia Dias of the girls squad, cheerleaders Della Gosseen and Alyssa Beach and girls basketball manager Lea Denet were also honored with their parents.

“I enjoyed it,” Slovensky said. “We do it for every sport. This community is really supportive of everything we do.”

Two of the seniors – Dias and Denet – are foreign exchange students. Dias is from Brazil and Denet is from Belgium. Both will return to their respective countries after the school year.

“It’s always been my dream to come (to the United States), so I’m really happy,” Dias said. “It’s like the movies. It’s really nice.”

Denet said she enjoyed being manager of the girls team in her first and final year at W-M.

“At the beginning, I wanted to be a player, but the thing is I’ve already graduated in Belgium, so I couldn’t join the team as a player,” Denet said. “I could still be the manager and work with them at practice. I thought that was a better idea.”

The W-M girls' season ended on Feb. 25 with a 59-46 loss to Community R-6 in a Class 1, District 9 quarterfinal game at Madison.

The Tigers were swept on senior night, losing the girls game 49-38 and the boys contest 46-35. The W-M boys led by as many as eight points before Silex came back with an 18-0 run in the third quarter en route to the win.

Despite the heartbreaking loss to the Owls, the W-M boys have shown signs of improvement all season long. They tripled their win total of two from a year ago. Among the highlights this year were beating Community R-6 in their season opener and picking up a third-place trophy at the Keytesville Tournament.

“It really helps that we have people who stuck with it for a couple of years because after my sophomore year, we graduated all of the players who started,” Slovensky said. “So we just had to rebuild with what we had. I think we’ve done pretty well.”

Slovensky said he had some signs of rustiness last year. He hadn’t played any basketball since junior high.

“It was a bit rough,” Slovensky said. “It took a while to get readjusted to it.”

For most of the season, Slovensky has been the Tigers’ point guard. He had several strong performances, including an 11-point effort against New Haven on Jan. 24 in a contest in which he sat out the third quarter due to a bloody lip.

“I’ve been able to do a lot more,” said Slovensky, who plans to compete in track at State Fair Community College next year. “I’m more consistent with things.”

Senior night was originally scheduled for Feb. 18, but was moved to the day before due to the impending inclement weather that hit the Montgomery County area.