Lady Raiders surge late to earn 20th win

SEDALIA — Another year, another 20-win season for the Three Rivers College women's basketball team.

The Lady Raiders hit 20 wins in a season for the ninth year in a row Wednesday night when they downed the State Fair Lady Roadrunners 62-51 at the Fred E. Davis Multipurpose Center.

The last time Three Rivers did not win 20 games? It was the 2015-16 season, when the team finished 15-16.

Even more impressive than hitting the 20-win mark again is that the Lady Raiders are also 7-0 in Region XVI play and hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over ever other region team except for Mineral Area — and TRC can earn that with a win Saturday.

Last but not least, Three Rivers leads the Lady Roadrunners and Crowder both by four games in the Region XVI standings and can lock up the top seed — and homecourt advantage for the region tournament — with a win Saturday over Mineral Area.

With that said, Wednesday's win was anything but easy for the Lady Raiders, who were tied at 27 with State Fair at the intermission and led just 40-39 at the start of the fourth quarter.

However, Jasmine Davis drained a 3-pointer from the corner 39 seconds into the fourth quarter, igniting a 14-0 run for Three Rivers. Kamille Brown sank a pair of free throws with 5:29 left in the game to make it 54-39 and cap the run. TRC led by at least eight points the rest of the way.

The Lady Raiders won Wednesday despite shooting just 35% from the field (18-for-41), committing 20 turnovers and being outrebounded 37-30 by the Lady Roadrunners. However, Three Rivers was an impressive 22-for-25 at the free-throw line.

Lexi Weaver led the Lady Raiders with 15 points, while Kaleigh Thompson added 13, Brittani Wells had 12 in her first start of the season, Davis contributed eight, Laylah Reese had six and Brown finished with five. Wells also had six rebounds, while Thompson had five. Davis also had four steals and blocked a pair of shots.

Malia Rogers led State Fair with 16 points, while Madison Johnson added 11 and the duo of Ellie Buscher and Shae Wright finished with eight apiece. Buscher also had 11 rebounds.

Three Rivers is back in action Saturday when it hosts Mineral Area in a Region XVI contest. Tipoff at the Libla Family Sports Complex is set for 5 p.m.