Lady Raiders pull away late to beat Crowder

Holding onto a single-digit lead early in the fourth quarter of Monday’s Region XVI contest against the Crowder Lady Roughriders, the Three Rivers College women’s basketball team needed to respond — and quick.

The Lady Raiders did just that, going on a game-changing run that turned a single-digit lead into an 89-67 win over Crowder at the Libla Family Sports Complex.

With the win, Three Rivers improves to 18-2 on the season and 6-0 in Region XVI play.

“We’ve got to keep working,” Three Rivers coach Alex Wiggs said. “We’ve got to find ourselves defensively and get our identity on the defensive end. That’s where I’m at right now, with everything that I’ve seen, where we’re at is we’ve got to start (getting) locked in better defensively.”

Kayleigh Thompson’s free throws with 4:54 left in the third quarter gave the Lady Raiders a 52-32 lead, but Crowder chipped away the rest of the period, scoring 21 of the last 31 points in the period to trail just 62-53 going to the final period.

Adyson Roberts scored on a layup just over 20 seconds into the fourth quarter to close the gap to 62-55, but Lexi Weaver’s 3-pointer with 8:47 left briefly got the lead back up to 10 points (65-55).

However, Aubri Wilson responded with a bucket on the other end 13 seconds later to once again make it a single-digit margin at 65-57.

That’s when Three Rivers rose to the occasion. Thompson’s three-point play with 7:45 remaining sparked an 11-2 run that was capped by a pair of Thompson free throws with 6:27 to go, making it 76-59 and putting TRC firmly back in control of the contest.

Kayleigh Thompson led the Lady Raiders with 21 points, while Lexi Weaver added 16, Laylah Reese had eight and the trio of Yannie Flemings, Samari Taylor and Bramyia Johnson each had seven. Flemings also had 10 rebounds, while Thompson added eight and the duo of Reese and Taylor had six apiece. Wells dished off five assists, while Kamille Brown had four steals and the duo of Johnson and Reese each had a pair.

“KT’s been playing well,” Wiggs said. “She had 21 points and eight rebounds — not a bad night for her.”

As a team, the Lady Raiders had a 46-29 edge on the boards.

“Whenever we want to rebound, we’re pretty good,” Wiggs said. “We had 16 offensive rebounds and we had 16 second-chance points scored on them. … Overall, not a bad night.”

Aubri Wilson paced Crowder with 22 points, while Adyson Roberts added 14, Vitoria Fernandes had nine and Barbara Perandini finished with eight. Wilson had four steals, while Jada Turner blocked four shots and Perandini blocked two more.

Three Rivers is back in action Wednesday when it heads to State Fair for another Region XVI contest. Tipoff time is set for 5:30 p.m. in Sedalia.

“We’ve got to go up there and compete,” Wiggs said. “It’s a tough place to play. They’re a very well-coached team that’s coming off a big win against Mineral Area, so we’ve just got to make sure that we’re ready to go.”