When the Higbee girls debuted this season, a group of six veteran starters led seven freshmen and a sophomore in a road game at Southwest Livingston. The Lady Tigers opened the season Tuesday night after the Advertiser went to press.

Higbee finished 20-8 overall last season before bowing out in the Class 1 District 10 tournament to rival Wellsville-Middletown. It was the second winning season in a row.

The Lady Tigers came up short in all four tournaments last year, including districts, and head coach Tanner Burton said his team is hungry to be better.

“We got four second-place trophies, so I think this year is all about getting the chip off our shoulder.”

The Lady Tigers found out Friday they will move to Class 1 District 9 along with Wellsville-Middletown this year. The district also boasts the likes of Community and St. Elizabeth.

A perennial powerhouse, Community has finished with 20 or more wins in eight out of the last nine seasons, with eight trips to the state final four in eight out of the last 10 years. Last season, the Trojans finished fourth in the state for Class 1.

St. Elizabeth is another powerhouse team that finished runner-up in the state for the last two years.

Adding Higbee and Wellsville-Middletown will make the district one of the most competitive in the state.

“We got a tough draw,” Burton said. “There’s definitely some work to do if we’re going to get to the final four.”

Luckily for Burton and his team, the Lady Tigers return two outstanding Class 1 players. Ronnie Welch and Lauren Spilman each averaged 14.6 points per game last season and pulled down more than six rebounds a contest.

Welch also made 5.6 steals per game last season, and she accomplished those numbers with an injured hand.

“She played with a bum hand, and she competed at a high level,” Burton said. “She didn’t want to go get it checked out because she didn’t want to miss playing time.”

Welch returns as a healthy junior and is ready to make her mark on the season.

“She’s ready to go,” Burton said.

Spilman averaged double-digit scoring last year as a freshman. With a year under her belt, she will play like a seasoned veteran this year, which will only add to Higbee’s dominance.

Burton said she became more comfortable attacking the basket last year and plays with a high basketball IQ. And she can flat-out shoot. As a freshman last season, she set a school record from the arc, banking nine 3-pointers in one game.

“She shoots lights out,” Burton said. “She steps up in big games, and she plays really big for us down the stretch. She handles the ball well and reads well on defense.”

Even with two premier Class 1 players on the roster, Higbee has more to offer. Allie Mitchell returns for her senior season after scoring nine points a game last year and pulling down 5.6 rebounds. She had two double-doubles a year ago, and Burton said she really blossomed into a great upperclassman leader during her junior campaign.

Isabelle Welch is another senior who steps on the court for her final season in a Higbee uniform. She was the team’s leading rebounder last season with 6.5 boards a game and also contributed 4.8 points a night.

Burton said the elder Welch owned the defensive end for the Tigers last year, became a scoring threat, and helped the team become more balanced.

The fifth starter will be 5’4 junior Reagan Derboven. She was named the most-improved player last season.

Higbee’s outstanding cast of top-level players should thrive in the team’s read-and-react offense that feeds directly from the exhaustive high-pressure defense.

“We use our speed to our advantage and start a lot of our offense with our defense,” Burton explained. “We want to push people to the brink of exhaustion. If we can wear them down in the first half, by the third quarter, we’re still going full steam ahead, and they’re starting to make mistakes.”

Burton said his players are fast and hungry and will press full-court all game every game until they build a 30-point lead.

“We just wear people down mentally and physically by pestering and playing chaos,” Burton said. “We’ve got depth. In our conference, there’s nobody that has the depth that we have.”

The Lady Tigers are expected to rule the CLAA conference. But Burton wants to give his team bigger challenges. Like many teams, Higbee scheduled several “play-up” games at neutral sites against powerhouses and higher-class teams.

“We buckled down and beefed up our schedule,” Burton said.

The first test will be at Central Christian College of the Bible in Moberly on Dec. 20 against Santa Fe, a state quarterfinalist that finished 24-3 overall last season. Two days later, the Lady Tigers take on Class 3 Lamar on a big stage, the HyVee Arena in Kansas City.

Higbee closes out December with a battle against Father Tolton, a Class 3 private school with three players over 6-feet tall. The game will tip off at 8 a.m. on Dec. 30 at Moberly Area Community College.

“This will be a really good stretch of games for us,” Burton said. “We’ve got a gauntlet that will prepare us for the district we were dealt.”

Higbee closes out the regular season with back-to-back games in February. On Feb. 15, the Lady Tigers travel to La Plata, a Class 3 team with two district championships in the last three years.

A day later, Higbee hosts two-time reigning district champion South Shelby.

“We finish the season with a team that’s been elite in recent years. If nothing else, we’ll have played tougher competition that we’ll see in districts.”

The Lady Tigers kick the season into high gear at the 68^th Annual Northwestern Tournament in Mendon. Higbee drew the second seed and will face seventh-seeded Linn County at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 28. If seedlings are correct, Higbee will face top-seeded and reigning Class 1 state champion Meadville in the title game on Dec. 2.

The Lady Tigers play their home opener on Dec. 11 when they host Bevier at 6 p.m.