BAY MINETTE, Alabama — The Baldwin County High Lady Tigers return with four starters to lead head coach Robert Wills’ 2011-12 basketball team out of the gate this season.

Aprica Bradley, Latreka Jenkins, Ashley Lewis and Nakea McDougal helped BCHS reach the Southwest Regionals before falling out of the 6A state playoffs. A fifth starter from that 24-5 team, Coco Knight — the Lady Ttigers’ talented freshman last year — will not be 100 percent until January.

“Coco should be back by then,” he said. “Hopefully, in January, she’ll be back at full strength. She hurt her knee playing summer ball with A.A.U. (Amateur Athletic Union).”

Darnesha Maye, Jennifer Modispachern and Latia Pullum return with significant playing time and should expect more this year. Others who look to be a big help off the bench, are Abigail Anderson, McKenzie Boykin, Savannah Hollis and Cathryn Williams.

Jenkins is closing in on her 1,000th career point.

“In general, I think the outlook is good.” Wills added. “We’ll be happy to get CoCo back, of course, but all together our experience should help us a lot this season. We’ve got the talent and they have played together for a good while now. That’s always a plus. But there are always adjustments to make and we have to maintain focus throughout. We do the skill things well, pretty much. We can handle the ball and shoot, but we can’t forget about the little things. It’s all important,”

6A Area 4 consists of McGill-Toolen, Williamson and Satsuma as well as BCHS.

The Lady Tigers open the season today at Foley and open at home Saturday against Escambia County.