FOUR IN A ROW? Lady Raiders eye return to national tournament

The Three Rivers College women’s basketball team’s journey to its fourth consecutive NJCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship tournament begins its next — and most crucial — phase next week.

The Lady Raiders open Region 16 tournament play at 6 p.m. Tuesday with a semifinal matchup against the Moberly Lady Greyhounds at the Libla Family Sports Complex. The Lady Greyhounds (13-16) advanced to Tuesday’s semifinal by defeating Crowder 60-56 on Thursday night in Moberly.

Despite sweeping the three-game season series with Moberly by an average of 23 points per game, Three Rivers coach Alex Wiggs is not overlooking the Lady Greyhounds.

“Moberly has a new coach (this season) and kind of new team, but a very well-coached team and very athletic,” Three Rivers coach Alex Wiggs said. “We know that we’ve got to be ready for their pressure. They will 1-2-2 (zone), three-quarter court and fullcourt trap, (to) make the game and control the tempo at their speed and pace. So we’ve got to do a really good job of handling their pressure, of not turning the ball over against it and being aggressive against their press.”

If the Lady Raiders (25-4) win, they will host the winner of Tuesday’s other semifinal between State Fair and Mineral Area next Friday for the region championship — and an automatic bid to the national tournament, which will be played in Casper, Wyoming this season.

“(They) are both very well-coached teams and both of them have beaten us on their home floors,” Wiggs said of State Fair and Mineral Area. “I think that it’s one of those where we know that we’re going to have to be ready to play and ready to compete, no matter who it is.

“They’re both different in how they play and what they have, so a little different in styles.

“But we know that no matter which one we have again, it’s going to take a good game from us and we’ve got to make sure that we’re ready to go.”

Moberly’s leading scorer is Destiny Bynum-Johnson, who leads the team in scoring at 13.8 points per game and also in rebounding at 7.8 boards per contest. Anjelicia Del Valle is averaging just under 10 points per game, while Sydney Pettis averages 8.3 points and 5.5 rebounds each game.

Again, Wiggs isn’t overlooking Moberly, who is also the defending Region 16 champion.

“We’ve got to win two games,” Wiggs said. “And of course, we can’t win the second until we win the first one. So we’ve got to make sure that we’re locked in and that we’re ready to go for Tuesday.”

One major bit of good news for Three Rivers is the Lady Raiders will have most of their lineup back from injury, aside from Brittani Wells, who was lost for the season in January.

“Everybody’s back and everybody’s healthy — as far as everybody that could come back,” Wiggs said. “We’re still missing Brittani Wells, which is a huge miss ... (We) won’t have her back this year. But the ones that have missed recently, we’ll have Laylah Reese back and we’ll have Mya Davidson back — so we should be 100% healthy headed into region (tournament) play.”