LUBBOCK, Texas — A historic season came to an end earlier than expected as the No. 1 Three Rivers women's basketball team found themselves on the wrong end of an upset Thursday afternoon.
Tyler (Texas) scored the first 22 points as Three Rivers missed its first 14 shots from the field. The Raiders never fully recovered in a 70-42 loss at the Rip Griffin Center.
The Raiders finish the season 28-1.
"I look at that box score and see that we beat them in the second half by three," Three Rivers coach Alex Wiggs said. "It's hard to say what happened in the first half, I don't think it was nerves. The bottom line was that we were not making shots in the first half."
Three Rivers outscored Tyler 31-28 in the second half but trailed 42-11 at the break after the Raiders had a very slow start as they only managed to get four points in the first quarter compared to Tyler's 26.
The Raiders shot 14.2% from the field in the first half, missing all 11 of their 3-point shots.
Tyler, the No. 17 seed, needed a late 3-pointer to force overtime and advance in the opening game of the tournament Wednesday.
The Raiders became the second straight No. 1 seed to upset in their first game after Jones (Miss.) lost to the No. 16 seed last year. The No. 1 seed had not even reached the final since 2017.
"I have to give Tyler credit," Wiggs said. "They're a well-coached team. They were able to get more rebounds than us."
Tyler (25-8) finished with 53 rebounds to 34 by the Raiders and scored 17 second-chance points.
Joi Montgomery was the leading scorer for Three Rivers with 13 points for the game while Autumn Dodd broke the 800-point mark of her career with seven points and she had four steals to give her exactly 200 during her time in a Raiders uniform.
Myia Yelder was held to three points, snapping an 18-game streak of scoring at least 10, while Karlee Holland also scored three points. Ari Winston had four points and seven rebounds.
For Tyler, Deborah Ogayime had a double-double 20 points and 12 rebounds while Shadiya Thomas had 16 points and Taryn Willis had 13 points.
The ladies in gold had a frustrating first 10 minutes with Tyler going on a 22-0 run in the first 6:15 that was finally snapped by a tear-drop shot from Holland. It wasn't from a lack of effort from the Raiders as they were getting it to the rim and taking good shots, but nothing was falling.
Through the first 10 minutes, the Raiders had a long climb ahead of them as they were looking up to a 26-4 deficit.
The Raiders came in with the 14th best shooting percentage in the nation at 44% and ranked fourth in made 3-pointer per game. They finished 4 for 25 from 3-point range and shot 23.9% from the field by the end.
"Everyone has nights where shots don't fall and unfortunately it was (Thursday) for us," Wiggs said.
Things weren't looking much better as the horn sounded for halftime and the Raiders were looking up to a 31-point Apache lead.
Despite the scoreline, the Raiders came out of the locker room with no sense of panic, but more like they were on a mission.
"I'm proud of our girls trying to fight back in the second half the way that they did," Wiggs said.
The shots started falling for Three Rivers, but unfortunately they were also falling for Tyler, which led 51-20 with 4:25 remaining in the third. The Apaches maintained their lead with a 56-23 advantage going into the final 10 minutes.
In the fourth, both teams traded shots, but Tyler had more than enough to pull off the second-round upset.
Tyler will face No. 8 Arizona Western, which beat South Georgia Tech 60-46 on Thursday afternoon.
Three Rivers was not alone as the No. 2 seed Shelton State lost 47-45 and No. 7 seed Blinn lost 77-65. The rest of the second round will be played Friday.
As for the Raiders, they will start heading back to Poplar Bluff on Friday and arrive back to the Three Rivers campus on Saturday afternoon.
"I was proud that the girls didn't give up," Wiggs said. "They still had the fight in them in the second half."
Robert Augsdorfer - Daily American Republic