We’re counting down the top 10 sports stories at area high schools in the 2023-2024 academic year at KCII. At number 10 is the Lone Tree Lions girls’ basketball team winning its first-ever conference championship.

Not only did Lone Tree secure the crown in the North division of the Southeast Iowa Super Conference for the first time, but it’s the first-ever conference championship for any Lion athletic team on the girls’ side.

Lone Tree went 14-2 in the Super Conference North and 19-4 overall, including winning 18 of their first 19 games. The Lions rode a dominant defense that allowed only 34 points per game and was pressure personified, piling up over 20 steals per contest.

Sophomore Finley Jacque led the offensive attack for Lone Tree by scoring better than 15-and-a-half points a game and leading the team in made three-point shots.

Junior Vivian Zaruba was also an all-around force at guard, putting up nearly 7.5 points, five rebounds, 3.5 assists and a whopping 4.5 steals per game to help the Lions set a new single-season program record for wins.

Jacque and Zaruba were both first-team All-Super Conference North selections, while teammates like senior Avery Lisk, junior Rylee Shield and sophomores Alyson Ford and Ava Christofferson also picked up all-conference honors for Lone Tree in a record-setting season.

Be listening over the next two weeks as the countdown of KCII’s Top 10 Area Sports Stories from the last year continues, and find the stories as their spot on the countdown is revealed at KCIIradio.com.