PEORIA HEIGHTS – The Peoria Heights girls basketball team wants success this season to be long lasting.

“We want a banner,” Heights senior Janessa Wallace said. “We want a banner on that wall to show how we are. Prove to everybody else that we can do it because we know we can. We just want to show everybody else.

“We want people to come back and look and be like, ‘That was our class. That was our success that we fought for.’”

Over 30 years have passed since the Patriots last hung a postseason girls basketball accolade to the south wall in Roger Bergia Gymnasium. Heights won a 1992 Class A regional title, but many lean years have followed.

However, a 16-16 mark last year seems to have jumpstarted a program resurgence. In those 16 defeats, the Patriots lost seven games by single digits, including three by five points or less.

“It’s a big carryover from last year,” seventh-year coach Chris Reese said. “I think we had some games slip away from last year that we should have had; we had some really close ones.

“We have high expectations, and a loving environment is what we always say.”

The 2023-24 campaign has been a whole different story. With just eight players on the roster, Peoria Heights won eight of its first nine games, thriving in the move down to Class 1A.

The season started off with winning the Lexington Classic, followed by big victories over Eureka and Clinton. A three-point loss to Brimfield was the lone blemish during an 8-1 start.

Team chemistry, according to senior Emily Dana, is a big factor in winning. She says she and her teammates are always supporting each other, bringing each other up when they're down, constantly communication and just having fun.

“It definitely helps,” the 5-foot-6 combo guard said, “that we’ve played together since we were in fifth grade. We just have each other’s backs.”

Her 24 points against Eureka recently were a season high. Lots of early-morning shooting sessions with assistant coach Derek Scott have made a huge difference in her improvement this season.

She leads the Patriots in scoring at 11.9 points a game, but Wallace (10.8 points) and freshman Rianna Foster (10.6 points) are double-figure scorers.

“I’ve been able to use my teammates more,” Dana said. “I’ve been helping them get open more. Driving to the basket instead of just shooting. I feel like that expanded my game more.”

Leadership is a role that Wallace has embraced. She has been so positive, along with having great body language to display a newfound confidence, consistency and control as the point guard, according to Reese.

Nurturing may be the best way to describe Wallace’s abilities.

“It’s really just the love I have for my teammates,” Wallace said. “If I have a good relationship with them like I do, it just makes it so much easier to make sure they’re taken care of. They want to be successful.

“… After we started to get the hang of it, so we just were kind of like, ‘Oh, we can do this.’ If we have faith in ourselves, then the wins will come. The success will come with it.”

Adam Duvall is a Journal Star sports reporter. Email him at aduvall@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @AdamDuvall.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: IHSA basketball: Peoria Heights off to best start in 30 years