Alex Hartman knows what it’s like to be part of an Eastern Missouri Conference championship team.

A year ago, Hartman played on one. He helped the MCHS golf team capture an EMO crown as the Wildcats won the conference tournament in Fulton by 26 strokes.

Now, the MCHS senior is looking to help the boys basketball team win a league championship. The Wildcats improved to 5-0 after beating the Bowling Green Bobcats 56-43 on the road on Jan. 17.

“Obviously, it would be the sweetest one because it’s my senior year,” Hartman said. “This is my favorite squad I ever played with. I love them to death. I’m excited to see how far we’ll go.”

The Wildcats have five EMO games remaining. Their next conference game will be on Jan. 31 at Van-Far. MCHS also has Clopton (Feb. 3, home), Mark Twain (Feb. 7, away), Louisiana (Feb. 10, away) and defending EMO champion Elsberry (Feb. 14, away) left on its league schedule.

“We can lose any of the games we have left,” MCHS coach Scott Kroeger said. “Van-Far played a lot of people tough, Mark Twain is five games over .500, Elsberry has everybody back from the team that was ranked most of last year, Louisiana is extremely well-coached and has one of the best players in the conference and Clopton does a great job up there, having really big matchup problems for a lot of people with the big boys inside and their guards really shooting it well.”

Kroeger said he was happy his team pulled off a road win over Bowling Green just three days after winning the South Callaway Tournament.

“Obviously, it’s nice to get any road win, much less a conference road win,” Kroeger said. “We’re excited about that. We’re excited about the position we have ourselves in, but it’s so far from over. We have to take it one game at a time.”

The Wildcats also improved to 11-5 with seven games and a tournament remaining in their regular season. They were scheduled to play New Haven on Jan. 24 in a round-robin game at the Hermann Tournament.

MCHS defeated Bowling Green for the second time this season. The Wildcats cruised to a 62-24 win over the Bobcats in the last meeting on Nov. 29 at the Montgomery County Invitational.

“It was a tough game and it was a very physical game,” Kroeger said. “It’s tough whenever you’re playing a team that pretty much got you outphysicaled in every position as far as athleticism and strength. They were letting us play, so it’s really a testament to all of the guys on our team because we have some inexperience. We’re getting to a point in the season where it can’t be an excuse anymore because we played enough games. But they really handed it well.”

The Wildcats got another strong effort from their sophomore class. Clayton Parker scored 26 points, Jay Rodgers finished with 15 off the bench and Isaiah Thomas added 10.

Rodgers finished with three 3-pointers, including one with three seconds left in the first quarter that gave the Wildcats a 15-10 lead. He scored 10 of his points in the second half.

“Mr. Rodgers stepped up big time for us the past couple of games,” Kroeger said. “He’s starting to get some confidence. You can see it whenever he gets the ball in his hands now. He’s not questioning himself every time he’s playing basketball and that helps a ton.”

Parker scored 15 of his points in the second half. At one point in the third quarter, he scored seven straight points to give MCHS a 36-21 lead.

Senior Zak Rodgers gave the Wildcats the lead for good with 1:24 left in the first quarter, when his only basket of the game broke a 6-6 tie.

The Wildcats also defeated Silex, Wright City, Wellsville-Middletown and North Callaway in conference play. Last year, they finished 5-5 in conference play.

MCHS is looking to win its seventh conference title and its third in the last four years.

“It was said no one is going to go 10-0 in our conference this year, so that’s what we’re shooting for,” Hartman said. “Apparently, it can’t be done, but we’re trying to show them that we can.”