LUBBOCK, Texas – The Three Rivers women's basketball team was able to hit the floor for a practice on Monday after finishing up the long bus ride from Poplar Bluff. Despite the ladies being cooped up in a bus and hotel rooms for a couple of days, shots were still falling for them during the shoot around.
"You could definitely tell we were on the bus for 15 hours at first," Raiders coach Alex Wiggs said. "But Monday's practice was more for getting their legs back under them and be able to shoot it around a little bit. We'll go a little harder Tuesday and build up to the game on Thursday."
It was definitely a relaxed practice, but with some reminders to not make any unnecessary mistakes when it matters later this week.
"We definitely need to stay loose this week," Wiggs said. "We can't be tight and that was my biggest concern getting off the bus. They were able to stay focused at the task at hand."
While the tournament is going to be played at the Rip Griffin Center on the campus of Lubbock Christian University, practices are held at Frenship High School with one-hour blocks for each team to practice. The gym features a college length court of 94 feet and the college 3-point arc of 22 feet, 1.75 inches is laid down with tape.
The plan for the rest of the week is to practice Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday afternoon after scouting the Tyler and Chipola game in the morning.
"We just need to make sure we can nail down what we need to do over the next couple of days," Wiggs said. "After we know who we're going to be playing after Wednesday's game, then we'll start shifting the focus to that. All we can do now is control what we can control."
The Raiders will play either Tyler or Chipola on Thursday at 2 p.m. in the second round of the NJCAA National Tournament. Fans can catch the action online for $30 for a tournament package at www.njcaa.or/network starting on Wednesday.
Robert Augsdorfer - Daily American Republic