Cumberland County High School’s varsity girls basketball team is looking to produce a winning season after going 11-12 during its 2017-18 run, and Lady Dukes Head Coach Omar Liggins sees this campaign as one of development.

The Lady Dukes fell in the Region 1B quarterfinals last season, but they did not lose many players.

The roster this year features two key seniors from which Liggins is expecting much: forward Nadia Elasha and guard Brett McHenry.

“But other than that, we’re a young group,” Liggins said. “I’ve got a lot of juniors and sophomores playing more than anything.”

Filling out the remainder of the roster are seven juniors and one sophomore.

“The season will be what we make it,” Liggins said. “We beat Amelia the other night by one point, so that’s a good start.”

Cumberland topped host Amelia County High School 32-31 on Dec. 7. Three days prior, the Lady Dukes fell 51-38 to the elite visitors from Prince Edward County High School. Cumberland opened the season Nov. 30 with a poor road showing against Monticello High School that resulted in a 53-20 loss.

Overall, though, Liggins said he is feeling good about his team’s performance three games in, “other than the Monticello game, (which) was pretty much the only game I just don’t think we played that well in, but the Prince Edward game I think we played well in. We even had our chances to come back and make it an even closer game. I know at one point we brought it all the way down to four, but they just walked it back out on us. And of course, the Amelia game, on top of the 30 turnovers we had … we ended up beating them 32-31.”

He said his players are developing.

“I think it’s going to be a game-by-game season,” he said.

Liggins noted he is looking for junior guard Nikki Hurt to be his team’s scoring leader, and he is also looking for important contributions from junior forward Sade’ Gregory.

The Lady Dukes (1-2) were set to host Goochland High School on Tuesday, and they will host Blessed Sacrament Huguenot Catholic School on Wednesday at 6 p.m.