The Bishop Chatard girls basketball team's season-opening four-game winning streak shouldn't be a surprise - it has eight starters.

Not at the same time, of course.Ellen Allerding, Megan Gardner, and Caroline Schutzman have started all four games, with leading scorer Anne Boese, playing major minutes whether she starts or comes off the bench. Coach Kevin Sweeney will plug in Kourtney Crawford if his team needs rebounding or insert Sabbath McKiernan-Allen and Rachel Kimack if he wants more defensive pressure.

"And down the road, Kathleen Lee could start a game or two," Sweeney said. "This team is very versatile offensively and defensively with (eight players) who are 5-foot-9, 5-10, or 5-11, so we have decent size and ther're good athletes. We can go one through 11 in players and not have any drop-off. That's been a key to our early success."

Bishop Chatard has been known for its depth and full-court style since Sweeney took over in 2005-06 - placing in the top 10 in the state in scoring average his first two seasons - so Thursday's game with Northwest (10th in scoring at 69.4 points per game) should be a display of the sport at high velocity.

The Trojans won the school's first-ever sectional titles those first two seasons before their scoring slipped to 26th in the state in 2006-07 and lost to Whiteland in sectional semifinals.

"It's been a lot of fun working with these kids," Sweeney said. "There' s a lot of self-motivation because they really want to make up for what they thought was not the best of endings (last season). All these kids have it in their minds that they have something to prove and are a good team."