If current summer results are any indication, the St. James High School boys’ basketball team will be in the running for a second straight championship season despite heavy graduation losses.

So far in summer shootout competition the Tiger varsity squad has literally been perfect.

“It’s gone really well,” said St. James head coach Ben Smith of the Tigers’ summer off-season activities. “The participation has been great and they’re working hard. We’ve got 35 players from grades 9-12; our last couple of years we’ve had good numbers.”

St. James is currently wrapping up its summer shootout schedule and will get in around 30 varsity games.

The Tigers have hosted three Licking Summer Shootouts so far this month and have won all three in undefeated fashion, putting up a combined 23-0 varsity record.

St. James ends shootout participation this week at the Tri-Lakes Shootout in Springfield Thursday and Friday, June 25-26.

STJ is coming off a 21-8 campaign, during which it captured the Class 4 District 3 Tournament championship before falling to eventual state tourney runner-up Clayton in sectional competition.

From that squad St. James lost four starters to graduation, including Aiden Boone, Nick Gleason, JV Meurer and all-time career scoring leader Tate Gruver.

However, a large number of returning varsity lettermen and key players from last season’s 19-1 junior varsity squad return.

Leading the returners is 5-10 junior point guard Isaac Smith, who averaged 10.4 points, 5.8 assists, 3.9 steals and 2.3 rebounds while shooting 47 percent from the field and made 37 three-pointers. He earned All-Four Rivers Conference and all-district honors and set single-season and single-game school records for assists and steals.

Other lettermen back are 6-3 senior forward Jaxen Spurgeon, 6-1 senior guard Owen Spurgeon, 5-10 senior guard Westin Ridenhour and 6-2 senior forward Karsten Driskell. Coming up from the junior varsity are junior guard Dom Giacolone, junior guard Cade Deluca, 5-10 senior guard Tripp Jones, 5-10 sophomore guard Easton Huffman and 5-10 sophomore guard Peyton Recker.

Added to that mix is 6-2 junior guard/forward Caleb Brown, who has transferred from Cuba High School. Brown averaged nine points, 4.3 rebounds, shot 47 percent from the field, 37 percent from three-point range and blocked 17 shots for the Cuba varsity squad last season.

For Coach Smith, the summer has been used to establish new roles for what figures to be a large varsity rotation.

“We’re just getting adjusted to what we do,” Ben Smith said. “We will look similar to last year. We’re really deep and will play nine to 10 guys this year who can really contribute.

“They have always played hard. And their passing is exceptional. This is the best passing group I’ve ever had during the summer. And we have a lot of kids who are good shooters. And Jaxen, Caleb and Karsten have been our post players and have done a good job there.”

With the loss of so many contributing seniors, Smith says this summer’s group has made progress faster than anticipated.

“I didn’t think we’d be 23-0 at this point,” he said. “They have been very good. Last year a lot of them just had to sit behind a lot of good players.”

He said there are plenty of improvements that still need to be made.

“We’ve got to have a little better defensive rotation,” he said. “Maybe a little more aggressive defense. And at times we don’t rebound as well defensively.”