Just one win away: Lady Raiders win big, roll in to Region 16 final

One win away.

That's how close the Three Rivers College women’s basketball team is to going back to the NJCAA tournament after Tuesday night’s 78-64 win over the Moberly Area Lady Greyhounds in the semifinals of the Region 16 Tournament at the Libla Family Sports Complex.

The Lady Raiders (26-4) took the lead for good midway through the first quarter and led by as many as 26 points in the fourth quarter before cruising to the win.

“The girls played really well, especially the first three quarters and then that fourth quarter, we just let our foot off the gas,” Three Rivers coach Alex Wiggs said. “But this time of year — survive and advance, survive and advance — that’s what you’ve got to do. You would like to win all of them by 20-plus, but you’ve just got to win by one to to move on. So I’m really, really proud of the girls.”

Moberly held an early 5-3 lead Tuesday, but the Lady Raiders answered with a 9-0 run capped by Mya Davidson’s basket midway through the opening period to make it 12-5 and force a Moberly timeout.

TRC never trailed again Tuesday.

“I thought our girls did a good job of continuing to attack and continuing to be aggressive,” Wiggs said. “I’ll be honest, I knew that tonight would be a little rough offensively at times because we’ve had a week and a half off. No matter how hard we try to go in practice, it doesn’t simulate games, especially this time of year because the intensity just amps up and all that stuff.”

Kaleigh Thompson’s three-point play with 4:42 left in the first half gave Three Rivers its first double-digit lead at 25-15, then Da’Kariya Jackson added a pair of technical-foul free throws to make it 27-15. Kiera Neal capped the spurt with a basket just over four minutes left before halftime to make it 29-15.

A Jasmine Davis basket with 5:40 left in the third made it a 20-point game at 44-24, then Thompson’s basket with just over 9 1/2 minutes left in the game pushed the lead to 57-32.

Thompson paced the Lady Raiders with 16 points, while Amiya “the Microwave” Johnson added 15, Jackson had 13 and Davis finished with 12.

Jackson also had 12 rebounds for a double-double, plus four steals and four assists.

“Six offensive and six defensive rebounds,” Wiggs said. “She rebounded on both ends of the floor — and that’s the type of player that she is (with) that sophomore leadership. She wasn’t healthy last year at this time. ... So it’s good to see her healthy and good to see her hard work pay off on both ends of the floor.”

Three Rivers also was boosted Tuesday by the return of Davidson and Laylah Reese from injuries that had sidelined them in recent weeks.

“I thought it was huge,” Wiggs said. “You could tell there were some rust on a couple of them for missing several weeks and all that stuff, but it was really nice to see them back out there. I think that the girls were obviously excited to have them back out there ... and ready to continue to move forward with them on the floor.”

The Lady Raiders will host State Fair at 6 p.m. Friday for the Region 16 championship and an automatic bid to the NJCAA tournament.

“(State Fair is) a very well-coached team and they are physical,” Wiggs said. “They’ve got some really, really good post players and guards, but they are primarily post-first and post-dominant — So we’re going to have to make sure that we’re physical, that we block out and rebound. That’s going to be the name of the game.”