Lawrence High girls basketball coach Kristin Mallory’s eyes shimmer with pride as she reminisces about seniors Cherrale Ricks, Erin Knight and Jodie Cochrane.

For Mallory, in her third year at LHS, this is her first true senior class. It’s the group she hand-picked as sophomores to be the building blocks for a program coming off five straight losing years and a rock-bottom 3-18 season.

Losing them, she admitted, would be tough.

“They’re a real special group because of a lot of things,” Mallory said. “They’ve shown the resiliency to bounce back after some adversity, and they each bring something unique to this team physically and emotionally that makes us better.”

For Ricks, Knight and Cochrane, this is an emotional time, too. They’re longtime friends who stuck together, resurrected the LHS program and are chasing their state-tournament dreams one last time.

They lead the Lions (13-7) into Class 6A sub-state play against Topeka High (11-9) at 7 tonight at the LHS gym.

“This means a whole lot because it’s our last season,” Ricks said. “If we lose, we’re out and our season’s done. We’d like to make it last as long as possible because we’ll never play with these people again.”

All three have been teammates since fifth grade, and friends since before that. They know each others’ every move, finish each others’ sentences and know each others’ strengths.

Ricks is the strong one with the contagious smile. Knight is the quiet one whose witty sarcasm lightens the mood. Cochrane is the heart and soul.

Lawrence High seniors, from left, Erin Knight, Cherrale Ricks and Jodie Cochrane have played basketball together since fifth grade. The three lead the Lions into sub-state action at 7 tonight against Topeka High at LHS.

Mallory said they knew how to connect, motivate and lead positively.

“Those three,” Mallory said, “I really can’t ask for more from them. The leadership that they’ve shown, how they’ve bonded together and then got the younger ones to buy into the system as well … it’s been a great run.”

In many ways, it has been an improbable run. LHS won nine games in 2002 and 15 last year. The Lions earned a preseason top-five ranking this year, only to stumble to a 4-5 start.

“It put us in our place,” Cochrane said.

Since then, the Lions have showed more effort, toughness and courage, and rallied to win nine of their last 11 games — the team’s second-hottest streak in 10 years. Almost every win happened in dramatic fashion. Four of those victories were by three or fewer points, and three came in overtime.

Ricks, Cochrane and junior Megan Klingler have become greater scoring threats during that time. Knight has been the team’s top passer. Sophomores Drew Huff and Kayla Nolte also have been major contributors.

“We’re all good at stepping up our game and wanting it,” Cochrane said. “This last stretch of games has meant more because all of us have contributed a lot in the games, whether it’s rebounds, defense or shooting.”

“And we’ve put them away,” Knight added. “We’ve finished games and we’ve all played really good as a team.”

Mallory said the Lions’ unselfish mentality trickles down from the seniors.

“Honestly, this group of girls doesn’t care who gets the credit,” Mallory said. “They don’t care who scores the points. They don’t care whose name gets in the paper. To them, it’s about winning. It’s about the ultimate thing.”

But for Ricks, Knight and Cochrane, this is their last chance together. After becoming the first senior class since 1996 to end their careers at LHS with an overall winning record (37-26 so far), the three will part ways next year. Knight plans to leave the game behind and attend Kansas University, while Cochrane and Ricks hope to play college basketball.

“It means a lot to all of us that we keep this going,” Cochrane said. “It means a lot to me. If we lost the first game of sub-state, it would be hard to face the reality that our season would be over.”

It would be difficult for Mallory, too. She doesn’t want the team’s hot streak to end, and she wants her younger players to experience postseason success.

But she desperately wants to win for her seniors, who have taken the Lions so far in such a short period of time.

“This last half of the season has been the most fun I’ve probably had coaching at Lawrence High,” Mallory said. “If you look at where we’ve come from, it’s been a good run for them, so hopefully we can send them out on a high note.

“We’ll definitely take a hit this year with what we lose. The young kids are great and they’ll move into those roles, but those three girls are gonna be missed.”