With a strong senior class and coming off its best season, the Dublin Scioto High School girls basketball team expects to put more achievements in the record books.

Those seniors have been talking about it since a 48-41 loss to Pickerington North in a Division I district final last year.

"We really started talking about it in the locker room after that game," coach Todd Hardesty said. "Someone said they have the gold medal and we have the silver, and we want the gold medal next year."

Those five starting seniors have made their mark on the program by setting the program record for wins at 21-3 overall last season after going 18-5 the previous year and winning just 12 games as freshmen.

The group that includes forwards Chelsea Albert (5-foot-10), Emma Culp (5-10) and Crystal Murdaugh (5-10), guard Maria Call (5-9) and post player Hannah Coughlin (5-8) has proven it can be tough to handle at both ends of the floor.

Scioto averaged nearly 52 points last season and scored more than 60 seven times. Opponents totaled fewer than 30 points on nine occasions.

"Our expectations are high, but we're kind of just looking at it game by game," Call said. "Our coach always tells us we have to look at it that way because we've got a tough schedule to play. We're just all ready to play and we love being together."

The Irish also won their first conference championship by finishing 9-1 to tie Pickerington Central for first in the OCC-Cardinal Division ahead of Grove City (6-4), Westerville Central (4-6), Chillicothe (1-9) and Olentangy (1-9).

After losing to Pickerington Central, the district's top seed, 47-34 in the first meeting, Scioto earned a share of the championship with a 56-54 victory when the two teams met in the rematch.

Scioto now is in the OCC- Capital with Watkins Memorial, Olentangy Liberty, Franklin Heights, Big Walnut and New Albany.

"This group is certainly a very unique, special combination of people," Hardesty said. "As coaches, you work to get people to jell. Sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't. With this bunch it's come from the kids working at it, and the effect it's had on the program is something you can't measure."

Murdaugh, who has signed a letter of intent to play at Bowling Green, has become the leader on the court and the team's scorer. The first-team all-district and first-team all-league selection averaged 13.6 points and 7.5 rebounds last year and is on pace to become the program's first player to surpass 1,000 points.

Call, who was honorable mention all-district and first-team all-league, is at point guard.

She averaged 8.0 points and 7.0 assists and made a program-record 33 3-pointers.

Culp and Albert were second-team all-league, and Coughlin was honorable mention all-league.

Culp came on strong in the postseason and scored double figures in every game, and Albert shot better than 50 percent from the field.

Off the bench, sophomore guard Brandi Gorniak (5-8) played in all 24 games and shot better than 30 percent from 3-point range. The roster also includes sophomore Kesi Hess, who missed most of last season because of injury, junior post player Christy Simpson (6-0) and senior guard Aimee Cummins, a transfer from Benjamin Logan.

Hardesty feels confident about having an eight- or nine-player rotation.

"The best part of that is on any given night you don't know who's going to step up," Hardesty said. "We have the luxury of having a lot of interchangeable parts."