Following a tough loss in the semifinals of the Region 6 Tournament last season, the Des Lacs-Burlington Lakers girls’ basketball team is hungry for more heading into this year. Their main goal? To make it one step further than the year before.

“The State Tournament is always a goal. We missed that by a matter of a few points last year and feel like we could be at that level again this year. We want a district title,” Lakers’ head coach Tracy Bonn tells The Minot Daily News.

Aside from taking it a step further this year, Bonn shared that smaller scale goals include wanting to out rebound and be more sound defensively than every team they face, as well as statistically standing out in deflections, steals, and rebounds in every game.

Even though the Lakers lost some key players in last year’s senior class, Bonn believes the returning talent the team has can step up and take on larger roles this year.

“Truthfully, all our returners will need to step up and fill roles left vacant from last year’s seniors. I don’t yet know how those roles will shake out. We return a small total number of kids, but a lot of floor time and experience in big games,” she said.

With the experience returning to the Lakers, Bonn believes that two strengths of the team will be athleticism and gritty play. These are strengths the team developed last season and are aspects of the game Bonn believes they can carry over into this year.

“We learned last year that we can never be counted out. This group of girls has so much fight and determination in them. We never give up.”

Throughout the summer, the Lakers spent time working on their outside shooting, which Bonn thinks will continue to be a strength of the team moving forward. Outside shooting and attacking are the identity Bonn wants the Lakers to own on offense.

“Hopefully we will be able to shoot the ball more quickly and effectively after our work this summer. Our offensive attack moves are strong, and we should be more confident with finishes at the basket,” she said.

The Lakers will begin their quest to make it to the state tournament on Nov. 29 when they host Harvey for the first game of the season and the first home game for the Lakers. Tip is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.