“It’s not how good you are, but how bad you want it.”

That’s the slogan that the Avon Lake Shoregals have taken on after back-to-back down seasons of a combined 6-36 record, including an 0-20 season in 2007-‘08.

Off to a 11-4 start this season and winners of nine of their last 10 — the Shoregals are all about business. They’ve had Southwestern Conference wins over Brecksville and Olmsted Falls, a 29-point win over North Olmsted at Quicken Loans Arena and they avenged an earlier-season losses in wins over Westlake, who defeated them by 22 points. They’ve also scored non-conference victories over Avon, Brunswick and Southview. Their four losses were to Westlake, Amherst (twice) and Midpark with four of the five losses coming in the first five games of the season. Their 39-35 loss to Amherst on Wednesday snapped a nine-game winning streak.

This team was supposed to be good. As freshmen, the team went 20-0 and won the Southwestern Conference. As sophomores playing junior varsity, the team repeated another 20-0 season. Then as juniors, it faced the adversity of playing varsity for the first time. They responded with a 6-16 record and got no respect.

“Last year we didn’t play all that bad, but we just shot terrible from the field,” said Avon Lake head coach Frank Coughlin, who returned eight letterwinners, including all five starters from last season. “In 22 games, we shot 23 percent for the year, so I’m amazed we won six games. We always played tough, we just couldn’t make baskets.”

This season, the Shoregals wanted to earn respect. So they worked hard in the offseason and went out and did what they needed to do. Win.

“This year we got eight or nine girls scoring almost every game,” Coughlin said. “Everyone seems to be contributing quite a bit. We have a pretty solid starting five and we’re also lucky to have players come off the bench that know their role and know what’s going on. Our chemistry is a lot better than last year. That has improved tremendously.”

After losing a SWC game to Westlake, 68-46 earlier this season, the Shoregals gained redemption last Saturday by defeating the Demons, 54-52, led by Kelly Bruce (14 points), Bridget Lyons (10) and Lacey LeDuc (10).

“It was like winning the state championship, we all freaked out,” said Lindsey Nock, who also chipped in with two 3-pointers. “It was probably the most fun I ever had in my whole high school career. That game was ridiculous. It was a lot of fun.”

“That was such an awesome win,” said Brianna Heschel, who added five points. “It felt so good to finally beat them. We played better as a team than last time. Last time we were really nervous because we knew how good they were. This time, we came in with a different attitude.

“We’ve really surprised some teams. When we win, it feels awesome after last year. Most of the teams in the conference crushed us last year. This year, we’re beating them. It feels good to get redemption on all of them. We just have to keep it up so they don’t come back and get us.”

The Shoregals also had to overcome a string of injuries to three players last season. Bridget Lyons broke her talus bone in her right ankle on the first day of open gym, while Danielle Willis and Jenna Goedde both tore their ACL in their right leg.

“I have a lot of respect for all three girls that were injured,” Coughlin said. “Those are pretty horific injuries, especially for a teenage girl.”

Lyons, Willis and Goedde have come back to help lead the Shoregals to respectibility. Lyons is averaging 10.1 points per game, while Willis and Goedde’s contributions may not show in the stat book, but their contribution has shown in the win column.

“It was a really long process,” Lyons said. “My ankle was broken for 4-5 months before I actually had surgery and then it was three months of recovery. I was lucky to get to play in the last two games last season. This year with running and practicing a lot and just getting back in condition has been tough, but coach runs a really good practice.”

Other attributions have been their post play. With post players Lyons, Heschel and Katie Mullen in full stride, it has made it difficult for opponents to score. The trio have combined to lead the team in rebounds with Lyons averaging seven boards a game. Heschel and Mullen combine for almost 10 boards a game.

LeDuc has also come on strong, averaging 8.1 points per game, along with 33 steals, which leads the team. Bruce also scores 7.1 points a game and Nock leads the team in 3-pointers with 19, while averaging 6.1 points per game. “I definitely think we’re under the radar,” Coughlin said. “There are still some people that think we’re not there yet so it’s a good feeling on our part. We know we can play well with most teams.”

Nock talked about how hard they worked in the offseason, but most of all, the way they were used to winning.

“We wanted it,” Nock said. “We’ve been together since freshman year and we were used to winning. We had two seasons where we didn’t lose any games and last year on the varsity, it was hard to adjust. We worked hard for this season and we wanted to have a good season.”

The Shoregals will continue their “Murderer’s Row” week, as Heschel called it, with Midpark on Saturday. The Meteors blasted Avon Lake, 68-38 on Dec. 16.

“It’s fun proving people wrong,” Nock added. “We’re on a roll and we don’t want to stop. We’re going to keep proving people wrong and just keep winning. We want to win so bad.”