Marquette returns junior two-year starters Kaitlyn Davis and Hunter Hopkins for the 2025-26 season and with the mix of new talent, hopes to build off last season 21-win mark under sixth-year coach Eric Price.

The 2025-26 Ottawa girls basketball team, despite key loses from graduation, will look to build off a previous season that saw the Pirates win 24 games and a Class 3A regional championship.

New Streator head girls basketball coach Eric Gwaltney is focusing on his Bulldogs being more competitive on a game-to-game, quarter-to-quarter, play-to-play basis as they head into the 2025-26 season.

From possible regional repeats for Ottawa, Seneca and Flanagan-Cornell/Woodland to new coaches, programs poised for a bounce-back and Times Player of the Year candidates, here are five storylines we're watching as the girls basketball season gets underway next week.

Flanagan-Cornell/Woodland all-time leading scorer and Times All-Area Girls Basketball first-teamer Ella Derossett has signed on to continue her education and basketball career at Illinois Valley Community College.

Multiple-sport Times All-Area first-teamer Jenna Setchell has committed to continue her education at Illinois Valley Community College and both her basketball and softball careers with the Eagles.

Four Times-area girls basketball coaches, including Ottawa High School's Brent Moore and Seneca High School's Josh Myers, were recently recognized as Illinois Basketball Coaches Association District 12 Coaches of the Year.

Honoring 25 of the area's best high school girls basketball players as selected by The Times Sports staff, here is the 2024-25 Times All-Area Girls Basketball Team.

Ottawa senior Marlie Orlandi is the 2024-25 Times Girls Basketball Player of the Year.