A big part of the Three Rivers women's basketball team's recent success will be headed west as Karlee Holland committed to Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri, where she'll continue her basketball career.

"I'm really excited to go over to Springfield and join the team there," Holland said. "It's close to my house, right in my backyard basically."

Holland, a 5-foot-7 guard, attended high school in nearby Licking, just under two hours from Springfield.

"I really wanted to be closer to home and after talking to the coaches it felt like home to me," Holland said.

Just wrapping up her COVID-freshman season at Three Rivers, Holland averaged 9.0 points per game and started in all but three games this past season, coming off the bench in two games.

Holland scored a career-high 17 points in a game twice last season, on December 29 against Wallace State and February 12 at State Fair. In the Region XVI Championship, when the Raiders defeated Moberly Area 81-73 on March 5, Holland scored 15 points.

In 2020-21, Holland missed much of the season with an injury but played seven games off the bench, making an impact offensively scoring 16 points in a game twice.

Holland will be joining a Baptist Bible squad that went 8-17 last season.

"I know a lot of the girls there already and I played AAU with one of them," Holland said.

In the classroom, Holland is studying health science.

"They pretty much had everything I was looking for academically," she said.

Baptist Bible plays in the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) and are members of the Division I Central Region.

Robert Augsdorfer - Daily American Republic