Myia Yelder recently joined an exclusive club among Three Rivers College basketball players.
The sophomore scored her 1,000th career point in the Raiders’ win over St. Louis on Jan. 24 and has since moved into third place all-time in the program’s career scoring rankings.
“Hitting 1,000 is an accomplishment for any player at any level,” Raiders coach Alex Wiggs said. “The thing about Myia hitting 1,000 is she’s doing it at a time where we’ve got girls sitting in the 700 or 800 point range, so it’s kind of amazing that she’s able to put up 1,000 during this successful time in the program.”
Yelder is the first to reach 1,000 since Michelle Gainey in 2002 and passed Beth Schnakenburg and Holly Teague on Wednesday in a win at Moberly Area. Currently with 1,057 points in 77 games, Yelder only trails Paula Corder (1,314) and Tanisha Albert (1,076).
Three Rivers (21-0) travels to Crowder for a 5 p.m. tipoff before hosting Moberly Area on Wednesday.
“Crowder has been playing well recently and they shoot the ball better at home,” Wiggs said. “They’re a smaller team, but because of that, they play pretty fast and have some guards that can shoot the ball so we’ve got to make sure to contest those outside shots.”
Ranked No. 1 in the nation for a second straight week, Three Rivers currently ranks third scoring at 89.2 points per game and also ranks in the top 10 in eight other categories.
Joi Montgomery is currently ranked fourth in the nation in field goal percentage at 62.7% and has recorded double-doubles in the last two games.
“We’ve known the potential Joi had,” Wiggs said. “We’ve seen the work she’s put into practice and it’s starting to show in games.”
As for the men, they’re looking to take the season series against MSU-West Plains as both teams have gotten a win against each other heading into Saturday. Most recently, West Plains lost to the Raiders 72-52 at the Libla Family Sports Complex on Jan. 17 and have lost three of four since that game.
As for the Raiders, they’re coming off of a road loss to Mineral Area last weekend but can close the gap with second-place Moberly Area, which comes to Three Rivers on Wednesday.
“West Plains is always a challenge,” Raiders coach Brian Bess said. “We’re hoping that we’ve improved and both teams have gotten to know each other playing two games against them already. We’ve had some good practices since the Mineral Area game and I feel we’re just as focused as we were going into that game.”
The Raiders were set to play Wednesday against St. Louis, but that game was postponed due to weather and no makeup date has been agreed upon yet.
Robert Augsdorfer - Daily American Republic