Incoming coach Bart Chance has the luxury of inheriting a squad that is blessed with experience as he takes over the Malden Green Wave girls basketball program.

Malden returns all but one of its starters off of last season’s varsity squad that finished 12-11.

“We return six girls who played quite a bit on varsity last season,” Chance said. “We have four returning starters and two more returning that missed part of last season with injuries. This is my first year as head coach but the girls were able to get used to me when I was the assistant last season. We’ve had some good practices so far and I feel like we are taking some steps forward already in preseason practices."

Malden has four freshmen, three sophomores, four juniors, and five seniors out for high school basketball.

“We’ve got a good balance by grade,” Chance said. “We are just going to mix and match and see how things go. Several teams in our area don’t have enough for a varsity squad but we have enough to play JV games when we can.”

Returning varsity starters are senior Allison Dearman, junior Rachel Rommel, junior Brydon Maddox, and sophomore Nasia Bloniarz-Smoot.

Chance said senior Mallory Perkins and junior Jada Townsend also contributed in a big way on varsity last season when they were healthy.

“We are looking for our returners to step up,” Chance said. “We expect them to handle the basketball and be able to score a little more than they did last season.”

Depth could be a forte for the Green Wave.

“We will play 10 to 12 on any given day,” Chance said. “I like to play fast offensively. But we are going to try to be a good half-court defensive team.”

Chance hopes his squad can make a deep run in the Bootheel Conference Tournament after being eliminated by Holcomb 58-42 in a conference semifinal last season. Hayti later beat Holcomb 64-61 in the conference championship to claim the top prize at the Bootheel Conference Tournament for a third straight season.

“Hayti brings Amiya Johnson back,” Chance said. “But several other schools in the conference graduated quite a few seniors last season. I think if our girls work hard we should be very competitive in the conference and the district as well.”

Malden opens its season today at 6 p.m. when it visits East Carter County

“East Carter returns quite a bit,” Chance said. “They are going to have a tough team this season.”