When it squared off against the Centralia Panthers in the Class 3, District 7 championship game on March 1 at Centralia High School, the Montgomery County girls basketball team achieved a big feat.

The Wildcats played in the district championship game for the fourth year in a row, which was a school record. Unfortunately, the accomplishment didn’t help the Wildcats pull off a win over Centralia.

From the opening tip, the Panthers were too much to handle for MCHS as they won 64-19 to win their second straight district championship, making it the first time since the 1990s that Centralia won back-to-back district crowns.

The Wildcats finished their season at 15-12. Making it to the district title game for the fourth consecutive year was one of many highlights for a team that lost five players to graduation and competed with eight players all season long.

After the game, coach Joe Basinger talked to the players in the locker room and praised his team for its amazing work ethic during the last four months.

“What I talked to the girls about in there was once we start getting past this and removed from this game a little bit, we’ll realize what we actually did accomplish this season,” Basinger said. “We proved a lot of people wrong. There was not a lot of talk about us as a basketball team coming into the season. For us, our goals were to compete for a conference championship and compete for a district championship. We did both of those things. I’m just really proud of the growth that these young ladies have exhibited over the season.”

MCHS, the No. 2 seed in the five-team district tournament, advanced to the finals by beating North Callaway 45-31 in the semifinals on Feb. 27.

Centralia improved to 27-1 and was scheduled to play Tolton Catholic in the sectional round on March 4. The Panthers, the No. 1 seed, defeated the Wildcats in the district finals for the second year in a row.

“We knew going into the game that we had an uphill battle in front of us,” Basinger said. “That was a seasoned team that had a lot of kids who played last year in the district championship game. They were ranked third in the state all year for a reason.”

Centralia also ended the high school basketball career of Aliviah Fischer, the Wildcats’ only senior. She competed in the district championship game all four years.

“I don’t know if there is a much better human being than Aliviah Fischer,” Basinger said. “I can’t say enough good things about her. I tell people that she has made me a better person. She does anything and everything for the people around her. She cares deeply about people and she is confident enough to tell people when they do things wrong and to build them up when they do things right.”

The Wildcats’ 19 points in the district finals marked a season-low. They had just one field goal in the first half and trailed 32-4 at halftime.

After starting off its season on Nov. 22 with a loss to Monroe City, MCHS bounced back to finish with its eighth straight winning season. The Wildcats also placed third in the Montgomery County Invitational, finished in a tie for second in the Eastern Missouri Conference standings at 8-2 and got road wins over Moberly and Milan.

“I feel like we had a really good season with the people we had this year,” Fischer said. “We worked really hard all season and I’m proud of the girls. Most of them had zero high school varsity experience and they came out and they played like they knew what they were doing.”

Freshman Emma Rodgers scored seven points and Fischer and sophomore Aubrey Janes each had six for the Wildcats. Fischer scored all of her points in the third quarter.

Against North Callaway, Janes finished with 20 points, Fischer scored 11 points and grabbed 14 rebounds and sophomore Khloe Kribbs finished with seven rebounds.

The Wildcats beat North Callaway for the second time this season. They won 40-32 in the last meeting on Feb. 15.