Lady Raiders beat Crowder, will battle Moberly for region’s top seed

Nothing better than winner take all, right?

Well the Three Rivers womens basketball team will have a chance to experience that with head coach Alex Wiggs for the first time Saturday night in Moberly.

That’s because the Lady Raiders took care of business Wednesday against a determined Crowder College effort, winning 77-49 to set up 5 p.m. showdown Saturday against Moberly Area. The victor claims the No. 1 seed in the Region XVI tournament that begins next week.

The two teams split the previous pair of encounters.

The Lady Raiders were led by Ari Winston (19 points, six rebounds), Maiya Bergdorf (17 points, 12 rebounds), Amiya Johnson (14 points, four assists, four steals) and Mariah Smith (eight points, seven rebounds, six assists). The TRC defense held the Lady Riders to 26.7 percent shooting.

“At the end of the day we have to win on Saturday,” TRC head coach Alex Wiggs said. “It felt like a game where we played a team on Monday ( a TRC win) and had to play them again on Wednesday. It took time to get locked in, take care of business and do what we need to do to win.

“We’ve done a good job (defensively) since the last Moberly game (a TRC loss) when we go on a dry spell offensively, to play well on defense. They’ve continued to do a great job with effort defensively.”

Three Rivers (22-3, 12-2 Region XVI) came out hot and led out of the gate thanks to some early triples and successful attacks at the rim.

But Crowder wasn’t going to end its season with its tail between its legs and went to battle with the Lady Raiders as the two squads went back-and-forth for a good chunk of the first half.

Three Rivers got up by eight in the latter half of the second quarter and ultimately led 36-32 into the intermission.

The Lady Raiders came out of the break full of vigor and jumped out to a 48-35 lead thanks in large part to a feisty defensive effort.

That early mojo kept on bubbling through some dynamic play through the quarter and even when shots didn’t go in, many times the play leading up to the attempts were memorable enough for the Lady Raiders faithful.

“We really played well the second half,” Wiggs said. “I thought our energy wasn’t where it needed to be to start the game, but the girls did a great job at halftime trying to make the adjustments and get going.”

Three Rivers led 63-40 heading into the final quarter and a championship game date with Moberly.

“We are all ready to play them and I think we are going to win,” Johnson said. “We have to keep doing what we are doing on and off the court. We are shooting better, the way we transition and we share the ball a lot.

“We have to go back on defense and get it back.”