With a big night looming on Friday, as Wright City will both celebrate Senior Night and take on neighbor Liberty Christian Academy in the Community Classic, the Wildcats’ boys and girls teams hoped to take care of business on Thursday.

Hosting Wellsville-Middletown, both teams earned non-conference victories to enter a big day on Friday on a high note.

Green’s career night helps boys earn win

Senior guard Lavarious Green has really been turning things on of late.

The latest evidence in that argument was the 28-point, career-high performance he turned in during a 59-39 win.

“It feels great, I’ve been waiting for a night like this for a long time,” Green said. “I love the support from my coach, my team and our fans. I just worked on attacking the basket.”

Green had a big first half for Wright City as nine of his points came in the first quarter to help the Wildcats open up the 11-3 lead and he had 17 by halftime to boost the lead to 26-15.

Wright City Coach Ken Brown was to the point in his assessment of Green.

“Lavarious was ferocious tonight,” Green said simply. “He’s really been playing well for us and he’s really been improving, probably one of the most-improved players we’ve had. He’s been a hell of a rebounder, a competitor. Once he gets going, he’s hard to stop.”

To complement Green, the Wildcats (6-17) got 13 points from senior forward Lehmen and nine from sophomore guard Kaveon Schulte.

Coming off the victory, the team will now face Liberty Christian (20-8) on Friday. The teams have met twice before with Wright City earning wins in early 2020 and 2021.

“This is my last home game, so it has a special feel to it,” Green said. “(On the court), we have to treat it like any other game. We have to go out and play our game and work hard to get the win.”

Ferrell does double-duty as girls roll

Wright City junior girls basketball guard Ada Ferrell got the chance to see the Wildcats’ 66-34 win over Wellsville-Middletown on Thursday through a couple of different lenses.

As one of the team’s top guards, Ferrell was right there with the starting unit, helping to build the lead.

She scored 12 of her game-high 17 points in the first half as the Wildcats built a 32-13 lead, and then, working largely with members of the junior varsity, she helped the team finish out the victory.

“I love, love, love my younger girls just as much as I love the older girls on this team,” Ferrell said. “The younger girls all have that effort and that grit. (Their play) hypes me up so much. It’s great to see (the future).”

While Ferrell led the way, there were nine girls who etched their names on the scoresheet.

That fact had Wildcats coach Dustin Elledge beaming.

“It was great all around to see the varsity kids getting points to build confidence headed toward the postseason,” Elledge said. “It was great to get the bench in, too. Those are girls who might have to play a role the rest of this season and will, definitely, have to play a bigger role going forward.”  

After Ferrell, Wright City received 15 points from senior guard Shiriah McRoberts and 11 from senior guard Kaitlyn Mikus.

Now, Ferrell and her teammates turn their collective focus to the Community Classic game, which tips at 5 p.m. on Friday. Liberty Christian has won its previous meetings against the teams in the 2020 and 2021 seasons.

“Our old coach went over there,” said Ferrell of Doug Smith, who now works at Liberty Christian. “It’s great (that he’s over there), but it definitely makes us want this a little bit more.”