MARIETTA - Kell's girls basketball team wanted to make people believers this season.

Then again, what team wouldn't be motivated with their record the previous five seasons a combined 8-105?

The Lady Longhorns were ready to make a charge in the win column this season, and they've already taken a massive step forward. With its 46-43 win over Sprayberry in a non-region game Saturday night, the Lady Longhorns improved to 8-11 and have now won as many games as they did the five previous years combined.

Kell has already beaten Sprayberry and Lassiter for the first time in school history, came from behind to oust Centennial and prevailed by 20 points over a favored South Paulding team.

"Everyone is going to remember that," Kell senior forward Ashley ShahAhmadi said of the team's milestone wins this season. "This will be something that I never forget. I can go back and remember what this team did to improve girls basketball at Kell."

Before this season, the results were ugly.

The Lady Longhorns were winless in 2004-2005 before enduring two-win seasons for each of the next four years. That made it tempting for players to just walk away.

"I definitely had my thoughts every now and then of quitting because of how hard it was to go through those seasons losing all those games," said senior shooting guard Brooke Weniger, a fourth-year varsity player. "To me, it was always just the hope that, maybe, things will change. Basketball is like my life, and I'm not going to give up on something that I love so much."

Kell's teams under former coach Susan Stoddard had athleticism but lacked an understanding of basketball, second-year coach Mike Plant said. When Plant took over last season, he saw a blend of seniors who didn't have much varsity experience and young players that showed potential.

The win tally in his first year was the same, but Plant strived to make his team more fundamentally sound, particularly on defense.

A year later, Kell is a much-improved team offensively. Plant taught the Lady Longhorns how to run the motion offense, allowing them the option of driving to the lane or passing the ball out to an open 3-point shooter. The Lady Longhorns have two freshmen in Naomi Stuger, who leads the team with 11 points per game, and Nikki Eggers who are capable of scoring in double figures.

"I think the people running the offense are a little more skilled and basketball-savvy," Plant said. "Instead of having one scorer last year with Brooke (Weniger), now we have two with Naomi and Brooke. Now we have a point guard in Emily Dixon who is a good 3-point shooter."

Kell has also matured mentally this season. The Lady Longhorns showed they can perform in pressure situations and are learning how to win games when coming from behind.

In Kell's win Saturday against Sprayberry, the Lady Longhorns trailed by five points in the fourth quarter before scoring the last eight points to win it. And Dixon, that good shooter Plant remarked about, hit a 3-pointer with 2 seconds left to win it.

In a win against Centennial last month, Kell's first Region 6AAAAA victory, the Lady Longhorns trailed by eight points with 4 minutes left before Stuger hit the game-tying shot at the buzzer. They went on to prevail 56-53 in overtime.

The 51-47 win over Lassiter on Jan. 16 was a similar story. Kell was down by eight at the half before Stuger hit a 3 with 20 seconds left to send it into overtime, where the Lady Longhorns won from the free-throw line.

While Kell is winning games, it still isn't close to where it wants to be. The Lady Longhorns are still seeking their first winning season in school history and Plant said the biggest challenge right now is getting his team to play 32 minutes so it won't have to come from behind to win games.

He's also challenging the Lady Longhorns to turn 2-minute stretches of fundamental basketball into 5-minute stretches.

"People use to say, 'We don't have to worry about Kell,'" Walton coach Karen Duncan said. "But we have to worry about them now, because they can come up and bite you."