Members of the Lexington High School basketball team expect to win, and that leads to a lot of wins, coach Bailey Harris said.

This year’s edition got off to a slow start, but made a charge in the playoffs that went all the way to the state finals.

“Our players expect to win and that has a lot to do with it,’’ Harris said.

Two members of this year’s team had older brothers on the state championship team, and another had an older brother on a state semifinalist team.

Most of the players now in the program have been in the system a long time and they have seen the success of the program. Harris said that inspires players to work hard, and it results in higher expectations.

“A lot of it is mental. They see older players working hard and doing well, and they realize what is expected,’’ Harris said, “so they do have high expectations.’’

He added that most players are remembered by what happened in their senior seasons, and any group of seniors wants to do well.

“This group did not want to be the one to break the string of 20-win seasons,’’ Harris said.

Lexington has built a winning tradition, and while it has had some good athletes, it has not had the superstar type athletes that many winning programs have.

The team that Lexington lost to in the state finals last Friday has at least two division one prospects, and when the Wildcats lost to North Charleston in the state finals two years ago, that team had a couple of division one players. Both those teams were ranked nationally, partially at least due to the quality of athletes.

“We have not had that caliber of athlete here,’’ Harris said.

The Wildcats are generally not as tall as the teams they face, but they do have a tradition of shooting the ball very well, and that has become the team’s trademark.

Over the six-year 20-win per season streak, the Wildcats have had two division one players. Tim Heskett is playing for Oklahoma, and Tyron Wright walked on at Air Force Academy. Wright was named second team all-conference this year.

There are several other players playing at small colleges in the state and many of them walked on and made their respective teams.

“We don’t get a lot of highly recruited players, but they are from a winning program. We are not terribly athletic and we have never had great size, but they know how to win,’’ he said.

So far in the program success has bred success.

Harris said he does not have a “magic formula’’ that has led to this success.

“We have some things we try to do, and as a coach you have to be flexible. We have changed according to the players we have,’’ he said.

The team has a reputation year in and year out of being good shooters, and most of those shots are from the outside.

“If we had a six-foot-nine guy who could score we would pound it inside, but we have been able to take advantage of what we have,’’ he said.

Harris has just completed his 12th season, and in that stretch there has been only one losing season.

The coach, the players and fans all expect that tradition to continue. As new players come through the system, they too will likely get into that mindset and the tradition will continue.