EDWARDSBURG — Off to its best start in years, the Edwardsburg girls basketball team looks poised to improve upon its finish from a season ago when it was eliminated in the regional championship by Hamilton.

The Eddies defeated Lakeshore 57-19 Tuesday night at home, improving their record to 9-0.

“We’ve come a long way since my freshman year,” said senior Kaitlyn Zarycki. “Lower classmen have been coming up and doing good things with our team. These girls, we’ve been playing together since we were little so I think that chemistry builds a lot too.”

Zarycki, a four-year starter who surpassed 1,000 career points last season, led all scorers with 21 points Tuesday, including 15 in the first half.

“This is probably the best team we’ve had,” she said. “Last year we were pretty good, but this year I think we can go farther.

“Last year our season ended early, so we want to go out and beat that team that beat us in the regional championship. We all want it bad.”

The Eddies finished last season with a 22-2 record.

Coach Jon Pobuda said this team has the potential to be better than last year’s squad, singling out defensive pressure as the team’s top strength.

“The girls are doing good things and they are putting in the work. Basketball is starting to make a turnaround here in Edwardsburg,” he said. “It seems every year we keep getting better and better.

“We have some work to do – we are getting there slowly, but every day it seems like we are getting better and better. That is the nice thing about us. The girls and the coaches see that we can improve. It is kind of scary that we have room for improvement.”

Without looking past Friday’s opponent, Vicksburg, Zarycki is looking forward to the team’s clash against Mishawaka Marian.

“They are ranked second in Indiana so that should be a really good game,” Zarycki said. “We don’t usually play Indiana schools. It is for the competition, to get better.”

The Eddies have been in few competitive games this season with its most recent closest being a nine-point victory over Otsego Jan. 8.

Pobuda said the team is constantly looking to improve, even while playing in games that are lopsided on the scoreboard.

“We want to make sure we are doing things the right way – getting in to our proper spots, getting our proper rotation, our proper sides,” he said. “When we get those leads we tend to want to cheat and get ourselves out of position and give up easy baskets so we want to eliminate those types of plays.”

Zarycki also said there is a lot to work on.

“He wants us to focus on the little things like boxing out, rebounding and getting our press right, just doing all the little things that will make us better,” Zarycki said. “We need to move the ball around more and be more unselfish with the ball, including me. I have that problem sometimes, but again there are a lot things we can work on to get better.”