CHOCTAW — Expectations for the Choctaw Central girls basketball team are always high, but it’s fair to say they may have been a little more tempered going into this season.

The Lady Warriors, winners of back-to-back MHSAA Class 3A championships, lost seven seniors off last year’s team that finished 34-1 overall and didn’t lose a game against Mississippi competition. Of those seniors, six signed to play basketball at the college or junior college level. The team has one returning starter from last year, post player Kaedre Denson.

So far, Choctaw Central has picked up where it left off last winter. Entering Thursday’s game at Southeast Lauderdale, the Lady Warriors are 17-1 overall, 2-0 in Region 5-3A, and ranked No. 2 in Mississippi by MaxPreps.com. The one blemish on Choctaw Central’s schedule is a 62-61 double overtime loss to Neshoba Central, and MaxPrep’s No. 1 Mississippi team, Pearl, lost to Choctaw Central 70-65 on Dec. 15.

What’s been the secret to maintaining success? This year’s new starters got plenty of playing time last season when they came in as backups during blowout wins for Choctaw Central, and they also had to face the starters every day in practice last year. 

“We did lose seven seniors, all of whom contributed, but we had a bunch of new kids that practiced against those folks last year,” Lady Warriors head coach Bill Smith said. “When you practice against a group like that, it’s bound to make you better. That makes a lot of difference, because you’re going up against one of the best groups in the state, and then getting a lot of game-time experience is helpful also.”

The good news for Choctaw Central going into this season was its one returning starter, Denson, is one of the state’s elite post players. Even with that experience, Denson said she is still surprised at how much success she and her teammates have had so far.

“I thought we would struggle, but the girls who returned are starting to know how the game goes,” Denson said. “When we come together, we click, because we’ve been playing together for so long, and we work hard in practice.” 

Said Smith, “I didn’t know what to expect record-wise, but so far they’ve met the challenge in every game but Neshoba. We beat the No. 1 team in the state in Pearl, and we beat Lafayette, which is probably the No. 1 team in 5A. You can’t ask for more than that.”

Junior Tia’Rain Saunders was the backup point guard for Darien Tubby last season but still managed to get approximately 10 minutes of playing time per game thanks to all the blowouts, Saunders estimated. Now that Tubby has graduated and gone on to play at Copiah-Lincoln Community College, Saunders is one of the players to slide into a starting role, and she said those minutes in live games went a long way in preparing her for this season.

“If our first string wasn’t playing well, the second string would pick them up last year,” Saunders explained. “It really helped us a lot.”

Like Smith said, though, perhaps the best preparation they got was going up against last year’s starters in practice. That energy has carried over into this season, where the Lady Warriors can be found in their gym in the mornings getting a nice workout.

“Coach always says there are no better opponents than us,” Denson said. “Every morning, we’re here getting after each other. We’ll even talk some smack, but we’re getting each other better.”

Saunders said the players didn’t realize how well they could play until they went up against Pearl back in December.

“That’s the game that surprised us,” Saunders said. “I think we were all a little scared going up against them, but when we started playing, we saw that we could hang with them, and then when we got going, it was over.”

Of course, with the success comes greater expectations, and winning a third-straight Class 3A title now looks like a real possibility. In addition to the 2017 and 2018 titles, Choctaw Central also has state championships in 1996, 1997, 1999, 2004 and 2005 in girls basketball. There are three repeats, but no three-peats.

“It would mean everything to the tribe,” Saunders said. “In the late 1990s, when my mom (Randi Williams) played, we went back-to-back, then lost, then won it my mom’s senior year. It would still be as exciting as winning the first because we haven’t won back-to-back-to-back.”

As a senior, Denson said winning another title would be the perfect way to cap off her high school career.

“It would mean everything to me,” she said. “There wouldn’t be a better feeling. Coach says we’ll have a chance to do something here that’s never been done — with three in a row.”