Bishop Chatard's girls basketball season could have taken a downward turn when senior Kelly Gardner went down eight games into the season. The Trojans were 7-1 when Gardner (20.8 points, 10.0 rebounds per game) was lost for the year. But after losing to eventual state champ Heritage Christian in the next game, the Trojans were able to win 10 of their final 14 games, falling to Whiteland 51-46 in the sectional semifinals.

Several key players return from that squad, and a total of nine players with varsity experience will take the court for Chatard.

"We think we have a very experienced team that works hard and has great chemistry," Trojans coach Kevin Sweeney said. "Everyone enjoys being around each other. We don't have a star, but on any given night we can have four or five girls come out as our leading scorer."

Anne Boese returns after averaging 17.6 points per game last season, as does Caroline Schutzman (average 13.2 points per game). Megan Gardner, in her first season as starting point guard, set a single-season record for assists (141) while averaging 3.2 steals per game.

"With our defense -- we're pretty aggressive -- we have the ability when we're having an off-night offensively to create a lot of transition opportunities off of turnovers," Sweeney said. "I do think we have a deep team and a lot of different-type players. We're a pretty athletic team, and I think we can throw a lot of different looks at other teams."