By Tom Robinson, NEPABasketball.com

Lake-Lehman closed the 2019-20 season impressively and opened 2021 looking even stronger.

In the limited time for non-league play prior to the start of the Wyoming Valley Conference schedule, there may not have been a more impressive player or team than Claire Dougherty and her Lake-Lehman Lady Knights.

Dougherty, a 6-foot-1 junior forward/center, was a first-team NEPABasketball.com WVC Division 2 all-star last season. She led the way when Lake-Lehman opened the season with two non-league wins over likely WVC Division 1 contenders, who opened the season ranked among the top Big Schools in the preseason My City Mortgage Super Six Power Rankings of District 2 teams.

Lake-Lehman won the WVC overall title with consecutive upsets of Division 1 teams, Dallas and Hazleton Area, after going 12-2 to finish second in Division 2 during the 2019-20 regular season. Charlie Lavan was named division Coach of the Year by NEPABasketball.com.

Despite beginning the season with just nine active players, keeping junior varsity games from being part of the schedule, Lake-Lehman was too much for Hazleton Area and Berwick, the team that prevented it from making the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class 4A state tournament last season.

Chase Purdy, a 5-9 junior guard/forward who was a second-team division all-star, and Hailey Kline, a 6-foot sophomore center/forward who is off to a strong start, also return to the starting lineup from a squad that was 17-10 overall.

“We’re in pretty good shape,” said Lavan, who indicated the possibility of a slight expansion of the roster as the season progresses. “We’d like a little more depth.”

The backcourt is new, but has held up well to strong competition early in the season.

Sophomore Marissa Brdaric and freshman Brenna Hunt have taken over at guard in the all-underclassmen starting lineup.

Halle Jones, a senior forward, is the first player off the bench.