Bringing back quite a few familiar faces but only one starter from last winter’s 24-win team, this winter’s Serena girls basketball team was anxious to get on the court Monday and show what it can do.

That enthusiasm showed in the opening quarter of the Huskers’ 34-18, season-opening win over the Streator Bulldogs to start the Seneca Pool of the Falcon-Irish Thanksgiving Tournament.

“I think we’ve been ready after these past two weeks of practice, and it’s great to be back out on the floor playing again,” said Serena junior wing Anna Hjerpe, one of last year’s regular reserves who’s now a starter for this season’s Huskers.

“I think playing with [the now-graduated seniors] last year helped prepare us for this year, for not having those girls and having just one returning starter back. I think we play well together, and that’s going to be a big part of this year – communicating and just playing together."

At no point of Monday’s win did the Huskers look more together than the first quarter, an eight-minute period over which Serena aggressively pressured the Bulldogs, forcing 11 turnovers and winding up with a 15-2 advantage by quarter’s end.

“The first-game jitters,” first-year Streator head coach Eric Gwaltney said. “I think everybody was nervous in that locker room, coaches included. We told them we were going to get pressured right off the bat, and we’ve been working on pressure, but I think they kind of forgot the fundamentals of handling the ball with that pressure.

“The first quarter, we came out slow, sluggish, trying to figure out where we’re supposed to be. But the second quarter and after, we played a lot better. Minus that first quarter, we hung with them the rest of the game.”

Indeed, as the Bulldogs played Serena even, 7-7, in the second quarter, were outscored 6-2 in the third and finished by outscoring the Huskers 7-6 in the fourth.

“We’ve been working on [our press]. It’s still a work in progress, and we had some breakdowns,” eighth-season Huskers coach Jim Jobst said. “But we got some turnovers and some easy buckets out of it. Then we took it off, and I think we lost momentum a little bit and hit a dry spell.

“But all in all, it’s the first game, and you expect a lot of that.”

Senior guard Ava Gwaltney – the Bulldogs’ leading scorer last season – finished with team-highs of eight points and four steals. Alexis Thomas added six points, six rebounds and two blocked shots, with Izzy Mahan and Rhea Huey (six rebounds) scoring two points apiece to round out Streator’s total.

For Serena, Hjerpe led the attack and was the game’s only double-digit scorer with a 10-point, seven-steal performance. Finley Jobst (nine points, five rebounds, three assists), aforementioned lone returning Serena starter Kendall Whiteaker (eight points, five rebounds) and Brynley Glade (three points, four steals) also paced a balanced effort for the Huskers.

“That’s how I expect it to be most nights,” Coach Jobst said. " then every once in a while, one will get hot and give us 15. But, yeah, I kind of expect 8-to-10 across the board from five or six kids most games."

Serena (1-0) will continue in the Falcon-Irish Thanksgiving Tournament with a Tuesday game against Marquette (0-1) followed by what’s shaping up to potentially be the pool-deciding game Thursday against host Seneca (1-0). Streator (0-1) plays Seneca on Tuesday and Marquette on Thursday.

Title day of the tournament will be held Saturday in Seneca, with teams matching up against teams from the Flanagan-Cornell/Woodland Pool.