Lakeland High School’s girls’ basketball team fell 39-28 to visiting Great Bridge High School in Tuesday night’s season opener, but the Lady Cavs still exhibited a quality they will need to improve on last year.

“They have a non-quitting spirit about them,” Lakeland head coach Brandey Blunt said. “They’re going to play ‘til the end, no matter what the score is.”

But the Lady Cavaliers struggled to put points on the board.

“We just could not hit shots on the outside, and we missed quite a few free throws, so that hurt,” Blunt said.

She expects scoring will be the biggest challenge her team faces this year.

Lakeland comes off a 3-19 season. It lost forward Chardonnay Patterson and guards Quaesha Knight and Khadajah Dillard to graduation.

“Over half of the team is the (junior varsity squad) from last year,” Blunt said.

While inexperienced at the varsity level, some of these players do bring solid basketball experience with them.

The starting lineup does not have a single unfamiliar name in it.

“I have a good core of leaders from last year that have returned, so that’s a good thing,” Blunt said.

The starters are seniors Kyiesha Barrett, Logan Reid, Nijel Smith, junior Sharneisha Savage and sophomore DJannay Patterson.

Though experience is there, Coach Blunt said she is a realist when it comes to her expectations for the team this year.

“We’re not the best team, we’re not the most skilled team, and I know that, but these kids play with a lot of heart,” she said, expressing excitement “because you can’t teach that.”

It matters to them when they lose, “so that makes them work that much harder in practice,” she said.

The team has some individual standouts, led by Kyiesha Barrett, who plays point guard and continues to be a primary offensive weapon, like she was last year.

“She really is the spark that gets our team going,” Blunt said.

Barrett led Lakeland with 11 points on Tuesday night.

Blunt said her other standout is forward Logan Reid, who scored nine points against Great Bridge.

“Logan brings her leadership on and off the court,” Blunt said. “She’s also a captain. She gets her team fired up, and she brings a lot of rebounding, fundamental post-work.”

To help her team tackle its scoring challenges, Blunt is encouraging players to get involved in order to split opposing defenses’ focus, which typically rests on Barrett.

The coach also sees the other end of the court as a root of offense.

“I don’t think we really have a problem with stopping teams,” Blunt said, but Lakeland needs to be able to score consistently on other team’s mistakes.

With regard to the Virginia High School League’s realignment, grouping similarly sized schools together for conference and post-season play, Blunt expects to have more of an opinion after the season.

“I’m looking forward to the girls playing different teams,” she said, but her main concern is that the Lady Cavs play hard, regardless of the size of the opponent’s school.

Lakeland (0-1, 0-0) travels to play Indian River High School on Friday at 7:15 p.m.