The Lone Tree Lions are in an unprecedented time of success for their girls’ basketball program.

Last season was a breakthrough, going 19-4 for their most wins in a single season in the 21st century and securing their first-ever conference championship by going 14-2 in the North division of the Southeast Iowa Super Conference.

As Lone Tree looks for a third straight winning season, almost all of the key pieces to last year’s championship chase return. That includes first-team all-conference guard Finley Jacque, who led the team by averaging over 15-and-a-half points per game as a sophomore.

Do-it-all senior point guard Vivian Zaruba is also back after putting up nearly 7.5 points, five rebounds, 3.5 assists and 4.5 steals per contest last season.

Senior Rylee Shield and junior Alyson Ford return after combining for over 15 rebounds a game, while junior Ava Christofferson rounds out a deep defensive group where all five players averaged better than two steals per game.

Lions head coach Ryan Shelman tells KCII Sports that defense is the cornerstone on which another strong season-and, potentially, another conference title-would be built.

“I want to carry over our defensive intensity,” Shelman says. “We did a great job of picking teams up in the full court and then playing good half-court defense and forcing a lot of turnovers. That’s something I’d like to continue to build off of for this year, and then just kind of open it up on offense, have a lot of fun and try to run the floor a lot.”

Lone Tree will get their new season started tonight by facing Iowa Valley in Keota as part of the Four Corners Shootout. You can hear the Lions in action as well as the matchup between Keota and Highland in a KCII Area Game of the Week doubleheader, starting with pregame at 5:30 p.m. on KCIIradio.com.