The Holcomb Hornets girls basketball squad enters its 2021-22 campaign hoping to extend its recent success after securing its first district title in school history last season.

Holcomb has two returning starters and several others who provided contributions off the bench returning from last season’s squad that went 15-8.

“We return two starters and our sixth-man from last season,” Holcomb coach Alexa Stockton said. “All three are seniors who we expect to provide big contributions for us.”

Holcomb has three seniors, one junior, two sophomores, and four freshmen out for high school basketball.

“One through 10 they will all get playing time,” Stockton said. “We want to get our freshmen some junior varsity time so we are going to play two quarters of JV before varsity games. But our freshmen will get varsity minutes as well because they are some of the quickest girls we have.”

Returning starters for Holcomb are seniors Selena Burress and Alyssa Brown.

“Selena was one of our slashers last season that scored a lot,” Stockton said. “She was an all-conference and all-district player for us. She was our third-leading scorer behind two of our seniors that graduated.

“Alyssa was our point guard and ran our offense,” Stockton added. “She’s very smart. She really started flourishing at the end of last year. She had some big games in the playoffs for us last season and has carried that into preseason practices this year.”

The third senior on the squad is Allison Moody.

“Allison is a very vocal leader for us,” Stockton said. “She was our sixth-man last season. We have three really good seniors on this squad.”

Stockton is hopeful junior Libbey Callis can provide big contributions in the post after recovering from a leg injury.

“Our junior, Libbey Callis, is one of our tallest players,” Stockton said. “She tore her ACL and had to rehab that and missed half of last season. But she had a great volleyball season this fall and is back at 100 percent now.”

Both sophomores on the squad - Maleigh Lemings and Kaetlyn Danley - who came up big for the Hornets during their state final four run in softball last spring are also expected to see significant time on the hardwood.

“They are good at softball, volleyball, and basketball,” Stockton said. “They came off the bench and got some playing time for us as freshmen last season. They should be able to do some great things for us this winter.”

Holcomb opens its season Nov. 30 at Scott County Central before hosting traditional girls basketball powerhouse Neelyville on Dec. 3.

“We are playing the cream of the crop the first week of the season,” Stockton said. “We will be throwing our young girls into the sharks so it will be exciting to see what happens.”