A year ago, the Montgomery County girls basketball team won its first district championship in 24 years.

This year, the Wildcats made sure they weren’t going to go through another long drought of district titles.

MCHS won its second straight district championship after cruising past the Hermann Bearcats 50-30 in the Class 3, District 7 finals on Feb. 25 at South Callaway High School, making it the first time in program history that the Wildcats won back-to-back district crowns.

“It’s a really big major accomplishment,” MCHS junior Maddy Queathem said. “I think we did it by coming together and playing together as a team. We played so well together.”

The Wildcats were scheduled to play the Skyline Tigers in a Class 3 sectional game on Feb. 28 at Jefferson City High School. The winner advances to play either South Shelby or Duchesne in the quarterfinals at Moberly Area Community College on March 4. Last year, MCHS lost to Tipton in the Class 3 quarterfinals at Sedalia.

MCHS’ win over Hermann extended the high school basketball careers of Carissa Doyle, Bailey Fischer, Carson Flake and Maddie Wisdom.

“It means so much to us, especially for the seniors,” MCHS junior Malia Rodgers said. “I really love our seniors a lot. Doing it for them was super cool.”

The Wildcats also defeated Hermann for the fourth time in five meetings this season. They lost to the Bearcats 32-31 in the championship game of the Montgomery County Invitational on Dec. 3 before winning four straight meetings, all by double digits.

“I really enjoyed them because they’re a good team to play against,” MCHS junior Claire Cobb said. “They keep us up and going and keep us playing our game of basketball.”

The Wildcats won their fifth district title in program history. They also won championships in 1977, 1991 and 1998. Last year, MCHS topped Hermann 56-45 in the district finals at South Callaway to end its 24-year district championship drought.

In this year’s title game, the Wildcats got strong performances from Rodgers and Cobb to pick up another district crown. Rodgers scored 25 points to earn Class 3, District 7 Most Valuable Player honors and Cobb finished with nine points off the bench.

Rodgers, the Wildcats’ leading scorer at 15 points per game, scored 14 of her points in the second half to finish with 20 points or more for the sixth time this season.

“I love having a girl on my team who could be a really good leader and could push me and all of us players to try to be our best,” Cobb said. “She shows up to practice ready to play basketball. I’ve been playing with her since fifth grade. I love having her as a teammate and as a friend.”

Cobb’s nine points marked a season high.

“I had a few teammates not feeling so well,” Cobb said. “I was thinking that I needed to step up because some of them were not feeling the best.”

MCHS, the top seed in the six-team district tournament, defeated Tolton Catholic 63-22 in the semifinals on Feb. 23 to advance to the championship game against Hermann.

Cobb said she is thrilled to play for a team that won back-to-back district titles.

“It means quite a lot to me because I love this group of people and I really think we have something special,” Cobb said. “We can go a long way because we have done it now two years in a row.”

Queathem joined Rodgers and junior Olivia Shaw on the all-district team. Against Tolton Catholic, Queathem broke the team mark of 3-pointers made in a career.

“That is a big accomplishment,” Queathem said. “It’s not something I think about all of the time because a team effort is more important. Basketball is not an individual sport. Although it is a really cool record to break, winning districts is a bigger accomplishment for me.”