Sarah Arendt, coach of the Spring Creek girls' basketball team, wasn't overly concerned with her team's 3-6 record heading into Northern Nevada Class 3-A play, since many of those losses came against quality 4-A opponents.

And, she told the Web site, nevprep.com, she still had some important parts returning from a team that in 2007 defeated Pahrump Valley 46-33 to claim its second consecutive 3-A state crown.

But beating quality 4-A opponents was commonplace for the Spartans when Johnna Ward, last year's player of the year and a four-year varsity standout now on scholarship at the University of Nevada, was running the show.

Ward was a special talent, especially within the confines of 3-A basketball, and was the face of Spartan basketball for four seasons.

But Spring Creek has consistently been one of the state's top 3-A programs for more than a decade. Much of that has to do with the fact that the program has enjoyed tremendous stability and continuity.

Arendt played for former Spring Creek coach Randy Rogers, now the head coach at the College of Southern Idaho, in both high school and college and then coached with Rogers at CSI before coming back to coach at Spring Creek.

The Spartans sit atop the league with a 5-0 league record, including home victories against Yerington (56-48) and Dayton (51-46) last weekend.

Asked if perhaps her team was on a mission to prove to everyone that there's more to Spring Creek basketball than Ward, Arendt replied, "I don't think so, but I know they're definitely out to prove they're capable of doing great things for the players, they put in some hard time for me. They can prepare and put their minds to do things people might put past them."

Only one major contributor from last season's team returned this year, Lacy Rider, who earned first-team all league honors last season. She's averaging about 16 points a game this season.

But the Spartans have benefited from the play of two players, Kelsie Blanthorn and Andrea Empey, who returned this year after missing most of last season because of injury.

"We were counting on them to really help us last year but Kelsie only played four games before severely injuring her ankle and then Andrea missed six weeks after injuring her ankle," said Arendt.