By Sue Teggart
C & G Sports Writer

UTICA — The Utica Chieftains girls basketball team isn’t taking the court just to compete anymore.

They’re taking the court to win.

The Chieftains have opened league play “White” hot, posting 2-0 in the Macomb Area Conference White Division, 5-2 overall. Their only losses have come against Grosse Pointe North and Warren Fitzgerald.

“We’ve taken a few lumps over the last couple years,” said coach Tom McDonald, who entered his 18th year coaching at Utica this season. “We all thought we were playing pretty good basketball last year at the end of the year. … We were all disappointed that the year had to end.”

Coming into the 2009-10 campaign, Utica hit the hardwood — and its stride — with seven returning players.

“The fact that we have seven back is the biggest difference,” McDonald said. “We had a very productive offseason working out and working on fundamentals. We just hit the ground running, and it’s caused us to get off to a pretty good start.”

Of those seven returnees, four — juniors Sarah Miller and Eryn Maday, and seniors Katherine Johnston and Katrina Suchoski — were starters a year ago.

“The biggest thing is that none of them had a bit of complacency,” said McDonald. “They were the catalyst in the offseason. They were the ones that worked the hardest and expected a lot of everybody else.”

McDonald said three years ago, Utica set the foundation for this year’s success.

“This game is about doing the little things better than your opponent and … we struggled, but we struggled because we were young,” McDonald said. “We just stuck to it, and now we feel we’re pretty fundamental and can compete with some very good teams.”

“I feel like we’re playing for something,” Johnston said. “Last year, we kept playing to get better … but now we actually see we have the talent to win. It keeps us driving to go further.”

With a solid nucleus in place, the Chieftains are on track to eclipse last year’s record — 3-7 in the MAC White, 5-17 overall.

McDonald said one of the keys to his team’s early success is taking care of the basketball on both ends of the court.

“We struggled to score last year early in the year, and we’ve done a better job of getting more quality shots and ultimately making more shots,” McDonald said.

“Last year, there were a lot of games where we felt like we did a good job running the offense and we should’ve won, but we missed shots. This year, we’re shooting much better. Defensively, we’re a little more solid, too.”

If the team’s effort against Romeo High (Jan. 7) — a 62-38 win over the MAC White defending champions — is any indication of its potential, Utica can’t be taken lightly.

McDonald said rather than focusing on whom they’ve beaten, the Chieftains are aiming for consistency and effort from game to game.

“We’ve beaten teams that we haven’t beat in a couple years, and that feels good, but we talk all the time about not worrying about ‘who,’” McDonald said. “We like to talk about playing against the game and just getting better that way.”

McDonald said if the Chieftains continue to get better, they will have an opportunity to do some special things at the end of the year.

“We have that potential to go far in districts and beyond that,” Suchoski said. “Everybody has their own talent, and when we put it together, it shines on the court.”

“We feel good about where we’re going and about some things we’ve accomplished, and we’re just working towards getting better and moving forward,” McDonald said.

You can reach Sports Writer Sue Teggart at steggart@candgnews.com or at (586) 279-1107.