The Three Rivers College women's basketball team used a strong second quarter to take control of Saturday's Region 16 game against Moberly and eventually earn a 72-51 win over the Greyhounds at the Libla Family Sports Complex.
With the win, the Lady Raiders (23-4, 8-2 Region 16) stay on pace to possibly earn a No. 1 seed in the upcoming Region 16 tournament.
Three Rivers led 19-17 after the opening period, but used a 23-11 edge in the second quarter to take control of the game — and a 42-28 lead — by halftime.
"I think the biggest thing was we were aggressive offensively," Three Rivers coach Alex Wiggs said. "We were able to attack the rim, making shots, then convert on the turnovers that we forced on Moberly."
The Lady Raiders opened the second period on a 10-2 run, capped by a Kaleigh Thompson layup that made it 29-19 with 7:20 left in the first half.
Thompson led Three Rivers with 19 points on the night.
"She's been playing well on the offensive end the last couple of games," Wiggs said. "She's been aggressive playing off two feet getting to the rim and stuff that we knew she could do. With her redshirting last year, she didn't get that game experience. I feel like on the offensive end, she's really finding her groove."
Deziree' Bryant's 3-pointer with roughly 3 1/2 minutes left in the first half cut the Lady Raiders' lead to 32-26, but TRC closed the half on a 10-2 run to lead by 14 points at the intermission.
Kiera Neal's triple with 5:14 left in the third quarter gave Three Rivers its first 20-point lead of the night (53-33) and the Lady Greyhounds did not come any closer than 15 points the rest of the evening.
The Lady Raiders also were able to capitalize on 29 Moberly turnovers, and Jasmine Davis came off the bench to record six of the team's 19 steals.
"I thought Jasmine did an awesome job for us defensively," Wiggs said. "I can't remember how many assists she had, but I thought she had a lot of hockey assists, where we'd get the steal. she pitched (the ball) ahead and we'd make one more pass for the layup."
Neal added 12 points and five rebounds for Three Rivers, while she and Thompson added three steals apiece.
Anjelicia Del Valle paced the Lady Greyhounds with 19 points, while Sydney Pettis had 11.
The Lady Raiders head to State Fair for another Region 16 contest Wednesday evening. Three Rivers needs wins over the Lady Roadrunner Wednesday and against Mineral Area Saturday at home to secure the region tournament's top seed.
"We've got to be ready to go," Wiggs said. "State Fair's going to be ready at State Fair and we've got to be ready to go on the road and we need to get us a big, big win on the road. We've got to take care of business Wednesday in order to have a chance at a No. 1 seed on Saturday (against Mineral Area)."
Mike Buhler - Daily American Republic