Lady Panthers basketball season opens Thursday at West Hall

But, compared to the 3-23 season that Jackson County recorded in 2006-07, the team showed great strides during the year, tripling their number of wins.

If those strides are any indication, this season could be the best for the Lady Panthers in quite a while.

Coach Chad Pittman says he wants his team to find the consistency it lacked in the past.

“If nothing else, we want to play more consistent this year,” he said. “I think the kids understand what you have to bring to the table every night to play high school basketball, and that you have to compete hard for 32 minutes.

“I’m hoping that some of the lumps and bumps that we took last year were not in vain.”

While the team has lost two seniors in Alyssa Esco and Haley Zorn, they have retained a good core group of players, including three juniors, five sophomores and three freshmen. That group includes six players who either started or played significant minutes in every game last season, including Jessica Stephens, Ana Rodriguez, Katie Rodriguez, Breanna Drew, Ashley Skelton and Emily Elrod.

With a year of experience now under their belts, the Lady Panthers have the potential to continue to move in a winning direction, and put their program where they want it to be.

They’ll take their first steps towards that goal on Thursday, as they travel to West Hall to face the Lady Spartans. The Lady Panthers will look to stop a three-game winning streak by West Hall that dates back to December of 2006. Tip-off in that game is scheduled for 6 p.m.

For more on this story, see Wednesday's edition of The Jackson Herald or The Braselton News.