When he was a junior at Elsberry High School 13 years ago, Scott Kroeger played in the Class 3 state semifinals in Columbia.

This weekend, Kroeger will be heading back to the Final Four, this time as a coach.

His Montgomery County Wildcats advanced to the state semifinals for the first time since 1974 after pulling off a 42-40 victory over the Priory Ravens in a Class 3 state quarterfinal game on March 2 at Fulton High School. The Wildcats will make their fourth state semifinal appearance.

Kroeger helped Elsberry finish fourth in the Class 3 Final Four in 2011. He scored 21 points in the loss to Charleston in the third-place game.
This weekend, he’s looking to coach his MCHS team to its second state championship. The Wildcats’ last championship in 1972.

“I went up there (to the Final Four) and it didn’t go too well,” said Kroeger, who took over the MCHS program in 2017. “So I’m hoping that we can change that.”

The Wildcats will play the Summit Christian Academy Eagles at 8 p.m. on March 8 in the state semifinals at Mizzou Arena in Columbia. SCA, which is located in Lee’s Summit, defeated East Buchanan 66-64 in a state quarterfinal game – which was also played on March 2 – at East Buchanan High School to advance to the Final Four for the third time in program history. SCA finished third in 2009 and 2021.

Defending Class 3 champion New Madrid County Central and Thayer will square off in the first state semifinal at 6 p.m. on March 8. The third-place and championship games are scheduled for 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., respectively, on March 9.

MCHS knocked off Priory in the 50th anniversary of the Wildcats’ last appearance in the Final Four. The Wildcats beat Lafayette County 51-42 in the third-place game of the Class 2A state tournament on March 2, 1974.

“It’s really exciting,” MCHS junior Sean Rodgers said. “It’s something we worked on all season to get to this point. I’m really proud of us for making it this far. It’s going to be really fun to go to Columbia to play with all of my guys.”

MCHS will take a 25-5 record into its game with the Eagles. The Wildcats have won 10 games in a row. They haven’t lost since Jan. 27, when they fell to Hermann 46-44 in overtime in the championship game of the Hermann Invitational.

In the state quarterfinals, senior Mason Leu made sure the Wildcats weren’t going to lose another overtime game. He scored a basket with 1:05 left in the fourth quarter that gave MCHS a 41-40 lead, then made a steal that set up a free throw by Clayton Parker with 19 seconds left to round out the scoring.

“He’s going to make those big plays,” Kroeger said. “If you have him out there, he’s going to do something well.”

Parker finished with 17 points to lead the Wildcats. Senior Jake Stellwagen scored 13 points with three 3-pointers and reached the 2,000-point mark for his career. Junior Tyler Erwin scored six points and junior Jay Rodgers added four. Leu scored his only points in the contest on his game-winning basket.

Leu, who has been playing varsity since he was a sophomore, said he is thrilled to wrap up his high school basketball career in the state semifinals.

“It means everything,” the senior said. “This is everything that you ever dreamed of if you’re going to play high school basketball.”

Priory, which finished its season at 15-15, had a chance to win the game as time expired. But Myles Eidsness-Garcia’s three-point attempt was no good.

Kroeger said he was impressed with the Ravens’ effort. The St. Louis Catholic school had 12 offensive rebounds and hit nine 3-pointers.

“They shot the ball really well,” Kroeger said. “They’re super well-coached. They don’t play much man defense during the year. They came out and played really tough defense on us. They made it really tough on us. They got us out of rhythm early.”

The Wildcats hosted the quarterfinal game. MCHS fans filled up four of the six sections of the new Fulton High School gymnasium, which has a seating capacity of 1,450.

“We had a lot of fans show up,” Sean Rodgers said. “It’s a really cool environment. It’s a fun game to play with all of the people here supporting us.”

Kroeger said Fulton assistant principal Josh Pierce was helpful in letting MCHS host the quarterfinal game at the Fulton gym.

“Josh Pierce is a Montgomery County boy, but he works here now,” Kroeger said. “I’m sure he got a big hand to get this set up. He was here four hours before tip-off to get it set up. It’s a pretty stinking cool facility. I’m really happy that we got to use it. I’m really happy that we get to leave there happy.”