When his Montgomery County boys basketball team won the Hermann Tournament championship on Feb. 1, Isaiah Thomas was glad he stuck around this time to be part of the celebration.

The Wildcats pulled off a 40-35 win over the Hermann Bearcats in the championship game, making it just the fourth time in program history and the first time in five years MCHS came out on top in the Hermann tournament.

Last year, Thomas was rushed to the hospital after getting injured on the first play against Hermann in the tournament championship game. After the Wildcats pulled off the win in this year’s title game, Thomas took pictures with the tournament championship plaque with his six senior teammates – Clayton Parker, Andrew Moore, Jay Rodgers, Sean Rodgers, Tyler Erwin and Tatum Wessel.

Thomas said he was thrilled to be part of a Hermann tournament championship team in his senior year.

“It was a big win for sure,” said Thomas, who didn’t score any points, but was in the starting lineup.

MCHS, the No. 1 seed, finished 3-0 in the Hermann tournament and improved to 19-1. The Wildcats beat Wright City 84-21 in the first round and St. James 54-22 in the semifinals.

In the title game, MCHS came back from an 18-15 halftime deficit to pick up the win. The 40 points marked a season-low for the Wildcats.

“Obviously, we didn’t play the way we wanted to, but a win is a win in our books,” Erwin said.

Parker, who finished with 13 points, was named tournament MVP. He reached the 2,000-point mark of his high school basketball career in the contest against Wright City.

Moore scored a team-high 14 points and earned first-team all-tournament honors. He reached the 1,500-point mark against Wright City.

Jay Rodgers was voted a second-team all-tournament selection after finishing with 11 points with three 3-pointers, all of them in the second half. With the Wildcats trailing 18-17, Rodgers hit a three-pointer with 5:28 left in the third quarter to give his team a 20-18 lead it would never relinquish. He hit back-to-back three-pointers midway in the fourth quarter to give MCHS a 35-26 lead.

“He’s always working,” Erwin said. “He’s a hard-working dude. I’m proud of the dude because he has come a long way. Last year, we had to yell at him a couple of times because Jay can shoot the ball. We’re like, ‘Jay, shoot the ball.’ Now, Jay knows what he’s got to do. He can really set the tone for us. In that second half, when he hit two 3s in a row, that really got us going.”

The Wildcats won the championship in the first year of the Hermann tournament in 1980. They won it again in 1989 and 2020. By winning this year, MCHS snapped Hermann’s streak of four consecutive tournament championships.

The Wildcats lost to Hermann in the Hermann championship game in each of the last two years. In the 2024 game, MCHS fell 46-44 in overtime and lost Thomas for the season after he injured his shoulder on a ball screen.

The injury forced Thomas to miss the entire postseason tournament that included the Class 3 Show-Me Showdown.

“It was tough, but injuries happen in basketball,” Thomas said. “You bounce back, get better, do what you have to do and trust God.”

Thomas, a two-time all-EMO selection, said he’s happy he’s back on the court this year despite missing four games due to an ankle injury he suffered at the Norm Stewart Classic in Columbia on Dec. 12.

“It’s a big factor because I want to play college ball, so I have to play smart and play basketball the way it should be played,” Thomas said.

Also on Feb. 1, the MCHS girls basketball team defeated Gateway Legacy 47-26 in the seventh-place game of the Hermann tournament.

Sophomore Aubrey Janes scored 26 points and hit seven 3-pointers, tying a program record that is also held by Maddy Queathem. Senior Aliviah Fischer scored eight points, sophomore Khloe Kribbs had six and freshman Emma Rodgers added five.

The Wildcats, who were the No. 7 seed, finished 1-2 in the tournament. They lost to Rolla 78-20 and New Haven 27-25 in their first two games before pulling off the win over eighth-seeded Gateway Legacy.