After helping the Montgomery County softball team turn in a historic season last fall, Reese Hill was setting her sights on enjoying some success on the basketball court this winter.

As the Wildcats approach the halfway point of the season, the MCHS junior is doing just that, scoring in double digits three times – including a 12-point effort in her team’s 52-18 win over Bowling Green on Jan. 20 at Ballew & Snell Court.

Hill’s performance helped the Wildcats reach the 10-win mark for the 10th consecutive season. Now, she’s hoping her team finishes with a winning record for the ninth year in a row. 

“We’re setting the bar high for ourselves right now because we know there are a lot of games we lost that we should have won, so we worked really hard in practice to keep going,” Hill said. “We expect a lot more out of ourselves.”

MCHS lost 55-42 to Bowling Green in the boys contest, making it the first time since 2022 the Wildcats lost an Eastern Missouri Conference game. Their 43-game conference winning streak was snapped. MCHS is the three-time defending EMO champion.

Seth Walton finished with 12 points with three 3-pointers and Karter Reagan added nine with three 3-pointers for the Wildcats, who were coming off a South Callaway Tournament championship three days before.

The MCHS boys have four home games remaining, while the girls have three. The boys have Van-Far (Feb. 3), Mark Twain (Feb. 10), Louisiana (Feb. 13) and Elsberry (Feb. 17) left in their home schedule. The girls have home games against Van-Far (Feb. 2), Mark Twain (Feb. 10) and Elsberry (Feb. 16). The girls are 5-2 in home games, while the boys are 3-3.

Hill is back on the girls basketball team after a year hiatus. When she was a freshman, she played on a squad that won 22 games.

“Last year, I had a lot of stuff going on with softball, so I wasn’t able to play,” Hill said. “This year, I didn’t have as much softball, so I could come back and play.”

Last fall, Hill helped the softball Wildcats win 28 games and finish fourth in the Class 2 state tournament. She earned all-state honors for the third year in a row after batting a team-best .519 with five home runs and 21 RBIs and winning 23 games and finishing with 241 strikeouts in the circle.

After her softball season ended on Oct. 31, Hill joined the girls basketball team the following week. 

“It was definitely a little different from softball because we were kind of chill in softball,” said Hill, who recently committed to play softball at Jacksonville State University. “Then, in basketball, we ran a lot. But I got used to it and it was fun.”

Hill scored 10 points against New Haven in the consolation semifinals of the Montgomery County Invitational Tournament on Dec. 5. She had a season-high 14-point effort against South Callaway in a first-round game of the South Callaway Tournament on Jan. 12.

Against Bowling Green, Hill scored six points in each half to become one of three players in double figures. Aubrey Janes finished with 17 points and Emma Rodgers scored 15.

“I knew going in that Bowling Green wasn’t a great team, but we knew that we still had to play hard, so we just had to put our offense together and stay to ourselves,” Hill said. “We did what we needed to do.”

The MCHS girls won their 10th straight game against Bowling Green.