STEUBENVILLE — The Big Red girls basketball team is coming off a 15-win season from a group that did not have a senior.

While a couple injuries have subtracted from the group, the hopes for coach Angie Forte and company are high coming into the season with a lot of experience back.

“It was a good season,” Forte said. “We learned from it we have to be a little more disciplined offensively. We did a great job in transition, we have to be execute more in the half court set.

“We saw a lot of growth and maturity last year. They really started finding their confidence both offensively and defensively.”

The way last season ended, a one-point loss at home to New Philadelphia in the tournament after having a halftime lead, is front and center in the motivation this winter.

“Of course, we want to have a good regular season, but we really want to get farther in the tournament,” Forte said. “That’s definitely a goal of the girls that they talk about a lot. No one was satisfied with the way things ended last year. For me, I felt like my kids played hard and I got out-coached.

“This year we want to make sure we’re putting ourselves in a better position to go further in the tournament.”

Since that successful season, several of the team members have been successful in other sports — including the softball team’s run to the state tournament — which has Forte excited about the competitive spirit of her team and the state of girls sports at Big Red overall.

“These girls have had a lot of success in other sports, and that success in one program helps the other programs,” Forte said. “Sticking on the girls side, the female programs are really doing well and those coaches are working really hard with the crossover athletes. As a collective whole of coaches we’re changing the culture of the girls programs.

“Volleyball has had success, swimming has had success, track has had success, soccer has been successful, we saw what softball was able to do … it’s been across the board. All the programs are growing.”

As for her group, she’s seen them come together and get closer as a team, which she hopes will lead to even more success.

“We’re fast, we have speed, but I really think our strength is going to be how well we play together as a team and are learning to trust each other,” Forte said. “We’re working hard for each other and that’s going to be a strength.”

While there were no seniors last year, two starters have been lost to injury in leading scorer standout freshman Sadie Edwards and key contributing junior Analesa Perdue, both of whom will miss the season.

“Those are two key players we’re going to be without this season, but the other girls are stepping up to carry that load,” Forte said, who noted her team had a lot of scoring depth a season ago.

This year there are four seniors looking to lead the way, of whom three are three-year varsity players and two-year starters.

That class consists of Madison Cooper, Madelyn Criss, Sabria Jones and Aniyah Warner.

“This senior group, they really want it,” Forte said. “They’ve been together for a while now, they all got varsity time as sophomores. They’ve been playing together for three years, they know they’ve put in the time. They understand their roles and what they need to do.”

Behind them are a trio of talented juniors in Paige Matteson, Cianna Scurry and Emmy Pierce.

Sophomore returners Bailee Beall and Nyla McShan round out the varsity squad.

“It’s a hard working group of young ladies, they come to practice and work hard every day,” Forte said. “They challenge each other. They put extra time in over the summer … they’re focused and really want to do well this season.”