TALL TASK AHEAD: Lady Raiders open national tournament with Gulf Coast State

LUBBOCK, Texas — The Three Rivers College women’s basketball team will face a solid challenge when it opens play at the NJCAA women’s national tournament at the Rip Griffin Center.

The 22nd-seeded Lady Raiders will tip off the tournament’s final first-round game at noon Thursday against No. 11 Gulf Coast State College of Panama City, Fla.

The Commodores enter the tournament with a record of 24-4, with their four losses coming to Chipola, Northwest Florida State (twice) and Florida SouthWestern in the Region 8 tournament. All four losses came on the road or on neutral courts, with GCSC also scoring at least one win against all three schools.

Gulf Coast State also handed tournament top seed South Georgia Tech its only loss in both teams’ season opener on Nov. 2 in Panama City — and the Commodores themselves were ranked No. 1 in the country until road losses against Chipola and Northwest Florida State in mid-January.

“They’re very, very talented,” Three Rivers coach Alex Wiggs said. “They’ve got a couple of kids that can just flat out shoot the ball. … Then just their length and athleticism of getting to the basket and getting to the rim. All those things make it defensively where we’ve got to make sure that we’re really good at multiple things and not just one or two. We’ve got to make sure that we’re locked in for 40 minutes.”

Five Commodores average in double figures, led by guard Ciante Downs at 15.5 points per game. Imani Smith averages 14.5 ppg, while Alieghya Bartholomew averages 13.4 ppg and Abbey Cracknell averages 11.2 ppg. Like Downs, all three are guards.

GCSC also is a strong rebounding team, averaging more than 41 rebounds per contest.

Leading rebounder Victoria Woods averages just under eight rebounds per game, while Downs, Smith, Cracknell, Zaria Johnson and Arielle Stevens each average between five and six boards each game. Johnson also averages 10.3 ppg.

The Commodores also boast some legitimate height. Bartholomew, Downs and Smith are the team’s shortest players at 5-8, while Johnson, Stevens, Woods and Brianna Raynor all stand either 6-1 or 6-2.

Meanwhile, Wiggs said his team will be using the next two days for “practicing, focusing on the task at hand and making sure we’re as prepared as possible for Gulf Coast.”

Three Rivers bring some impressive talent of its own to the match-up with the Commodores.

Maiya Bergdorf leads the Lady Raiders at 15.6 points per game, while Da’Kariya Jackson average is 13.5 ppg and Ari Winston averages 10.3 ppg.

Bergdorf also leads the team in rebounding at 7.6 rebounds per game, while Winston averages seven boards each contest and Ahniya Melton averages 6.2 rpg. As a team, Three Rivers averages 43 rebounds per game.

Jackson leads the team with 4.1 assists and four steals per game, while Melton averages three steals each contest.

Wiggs said there are three keys to Three Rivers winning Thursday — and beyond.

“I think the biggest thing is what we’ve talked about all year long and that that’s taking care of the ball — making sure that we don’t turn the ball over and give other teams easy baskets,” Wiggs said. “The second thing is to rebound the ball. Make sure that we limit them often offensively to only one shot and then extend our possessions and create second and third shot opportunities.

“The biggest thing is, I think, executing both on the defensive and offensive ends. I think those three things are three big things that we’ve got to be able to do in order to move on down there.”

This is the third year in the row the Lady Raiders have advanced to the national tournament, a milestone for the program.

“I think it not only says a lot about this year’s group, but obviously the past years (too) and how the program has left itself, so to speak,” Wiggs said, “and has grown is that instead of ‘rebuilding’ … it’s like a reload instead of a rebuild-type thing.

“I’m really proud of this group. We graduated 10 last year and it would have been easy to have excuses and to look for every reason as to why we didn’t make it rather than to just do (our jobs), get prepared and let the cards fall where they may.”

The winner of Thursday’s game faces Jones College from Ellisville, Mississippi in the Round of 16 at 7 p.m. Friday. The Lady Bobcats are 25-3 and have not lost since Dec. 10.

“You can’t overlook anybody because everybody there is good enough to win,” Wiggs said. “But at the end of the day too, everybody that’s there can be beat.”