Senior McKenzie Lowry eyes the rim during Monday's practice as junior Baylee Moulder walks in the background. Lowry is one of four returning starters from a Leeton team that finished 22-5 last season.

Editor's note: Each weekday, digitalburg.com will look at a different girls or boys basketball program in Johnson County until all are profiled. Coming Friday: Warrensburg girls.

LEETON, Mo. -- There’s little chance that coach Arnie Drendel is going to reinvent the wheel with this year’s Leeton girls.

He may get a few pleas from his players to scrimmage early in preseason practice, but he continues to march his team through the drills he knows by heart, honing skills of shooting, ball-handling and rebounding – skills his team will need when the real games begin.

“We’ve got drills that we run and we do a lot of drill work,” Drendel said. “I’m not a big fan of throwing the balls out every day and scrimmaging -- never have been, never will be.

“We’re not going to waste a bunch of time going up and down the court like a bunch of wild chickens.”

Defensively, he won’t deviate from his man-to-man principles.

“That’s all we’ve done for a number of years and that’s all we’re going to do. If we get beat playing it, we get beat playing it, but we’re going to do it,” Drendel said.

“We work awful hard at it in practice. There’s a certain way we want it to be played and you’re either going to learn it and play it that way, or you’re not going to be playing much.”

And why would the Lady Bulldogs change what’s been so successful for them, anyway? Last season, Leeton finished 22-5 and came within an eyelash of the school’s fifth consecutive district championship.

Leeton, which reached the Class 1 state finals in 2006 and 2007, saw last season end with a 42-40 district final loss to Montrose.

Sophomore Rhiannon Finley works to get in the proper position during practice Monday. McKenzie Lowry (left) and senior Cinthia Walker watch in the background.

Four of the five starters from last year’s squad return this season, and Drendel was very pleased with his team’s showing in a summer team camp at College of the Ozarks in Branson. Against competition of mostly Class 2-4 schools, and some schools from Oklahoma and Arkansas as well, the Lady Bulldogs held their own, compiling a 5-6 record.

“When I saw who we played and the caliber of people we had to play, I thought ‘Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy.’ And we fared well, I was really pleased with the way we played," Drendel said.

McKenzie Lowry, Megan Uptegrove, Casey McNeel and Jessica Jewell all return to the starting lineup.

As a freshman starter, Uptegrove was the team’s top 3-point threat a year ago and her 8.3 points per game were second on the team. She’ll play the team’s No. 3 guard spot.

“Very quick, got a good head on her shoulders, shoots the ball very well,” Drendel said.

McNeel, the team’s senior point guard, injured her knee during the 2008 summer and didn’t play until late January last season. Still, she led the team in steals and was second with 3.4 assists per game.

“By the time we got to the district tournament, she was playing well,” Drendel said. “She looked great during the summer. She is one tough-nosed little kid. An excellent ballplayer, an excellent point guard.”

Lowry, a senior, plays shooting guard. Her 6.8 points per game were third on the team last season and her 3.6 assists led the club. She led Leeton with 13 points in the district finale.

“We run what we call an alternating guard on the fast break, and it’s usually her (Lowry) and McNeel that are doing it and they can get out and go. Those two and Uptegrove can really run, they can move, and it’s really fun when they get going.”

Jewell, a junior, is a hard-working forward who came on strong at the end of last season. She averaged 5.4 points and 5.7 rebounds. Drendel said Jewell can play both inside and outside.

“So she’s got double duty,” he said. “She does an excellent job.”

As a freshman last season, Mallory Early was basically the team's sixth player, and backed up her older sister Brittany, who led Leeton in both scoring and rebounding (12.6 points, 8.2 rebounds per game).

Since Brittany has graduated, Mallory, who like Jewell, is listed at 5 feet, 10 inches, will see an increased role in the post.

“She’s worked really hard at her post game. I think that really helps, because we are going to miss Brittany in the post," Drendel said. "She and Jewell have both worked very hard on their post game this summer. Were not going to come down and throw up 25 threes a game. We’ve got to have somebody that can score inside.”

Junior post Shelby Bruce, junior guard/forward Baylee Moulder, sophomore guard/forward Ashley Rogerson, sophomore post Cheyenne Stone and senior guard/forward Jessica Spalding are all in the mix to contribute this season.

“They are some kids that showed some potential last year and have really improved since last year,” Drendel said. “It makes us nine or 10 deep, which makes it nice. We are going to have a bench that’s going to be able to come in and help us.”

Leeton opens its season Dec. 1 at Ballard. The Leeton boys and girls host the Mid State Conference Tournament Dec. 7-12.

The Lady Bulldogs are defending champions of the conference tournament, but they finished second in the conference regular season a year ago, courtesy of a loss to Kansas City Lutheran.

Drendel said Montrose, which handed the Lady Bulldogs three of their five losses last season, returns a strong team and figures to be a tough out in Class 1 District 8 once again.

“Our goal is we’d like to get back to the district championship game and see what happens,” Drendel said. “We’ve been spoiled the last eight years. We’ve had real good success with kids here. We like playing that last night of district.”