The Lone Tree Lions are becoming one of the area’s best girls’ basketball teams. After a 5-4 start to last season, Lone Tree ripped off eight wins in their next 11 games. After going 11-5 in conference play and 13-9 overall, most of the talent that is pointing the program in the right direction is back for head coach Ryan Shelman.

Among those returners is sweet-shooting sophomore Finley Jacque. The Lion guard scored a team-high 14 points a game last season while shooting 38-and-a-half percent on three pointers and almost 42% overall on her way to all-conference honors.

Junior point guard Vivian Zaruba is also back, an all-around force who posted just under 6.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, three assists and three steals. While Lone Tree does need to replace graduated guard Riley Krueger, starters like sophomore Alyson Ford and juniors Cate Sexton and Rylee Shield are returning. The Lions begin the new campaign Friday and Saturday with the Four Corners Shootout in Riverside.