The Keota Eagles are gearing up to start a new girls’ basketball season. Keota won six games last winter, including four conference games, behind a solid defense. But the Eagles are hoping to make a leap on the offensive end of the court this season.

The entire roster from last year is back, including leading scorer Kennedy Jackson, who averaged nearly eight points and four-and-a-half rebounds per game as a sophomore.

Starters like sophomore Emily Conger and seniors Kimberly Clarahan and Grace Conger also return for Keota and head coach Jeff Sprouse, who tells KCII Sports that the team is hoping to carry over the momentum that they built at the end of the previous season.

“We struggled a little bit there before Christmas,” Sprouse says, “and we kind of hit the reset button around Christmas time to go back and fix a few things. The kids did an excellent job in the second half of the season building on each night. We went out and the kids got after it and got to where we were aiming to be at the beginning.

The Eagles’ first game of the new season will be next Friday night when they host the Four Corners Shootout and take on the Highland Huskies.

You can hear Keota take on Highland as well as the other half of the doubleheader with the Lone Tree Lions meeting Iowa Valley when you listen the KCII Area Game of the Week this coming Friday, exclusively streaming on KCIIradio.com starting with pregame at 5:30 p.m.