PARK HILLS — No Amelia Corasaniti? No problem for the Three Rivers College women's basketball team.
Playing Saturday's game against the Mineral Area College Lady Cardinals without their leading scorer, the Lady Raiders relied on a stifling defense to take a 62-45 win at the Bob Sechrest Fieldhouse.
Three Rivers limited the Lady Cardinals to just 26% shooting from the field (10-for-38) and also capitalized on 21 MAC turnovers in the game.
"I thought we did a great job with the quick turnaround locking into the (scouting report)," Three Rivers coach Alex Wiggs said. "Mineral runs a lot of different sets and options out of those sets and our girls did a great job communicating and guarding them.
"I still feel like we gave up some easy buckets and there's a couple things we need to keep working on, but overall I'm so proud of our team defense tonight."
And the Lady Raiders did it without Corasaniti, who leads the team in scoring at 13 points per game.
"Amelia twisted her ankle yesterday and every single player on our team stepped up," Wiggs said. "We have had several people out this year due to some minor injuries, so it's nothing we're not used to. I think it says a lot about this team though — and how we are so young and so many new kids, but we're growing up and getting better every day. I'm really proud of Ross and everyone coming off the bench and doing their jobs to fill that void."
With the win, Three Rivers also improved to 20-3 on the season and to 5-1 in Region XVI competition, keeping pace with State Fair in the race for the top seed in the region tournament in March.
"I didn't realize it was our 20th win on the season," Wiggs said. "That's six years in a row and it is a testament to these young ladies and buying into our system and doing things the right way. Hopefully there are many more to come. I'm super proud of these young ladies, especially with 12 new players."
Samyah Jordan led the Lady Raiders with 17 points, while Kiera Neal added 13, Caitlin Lord had eight and Da'Naya Ross finished with six. Tristan Spearman had three steals, while Lord and Ross added two apiece.
Karma Jones and Marceline Clernont led MAC with nine points apiece, while P.J. Reutzel and Mariah Dallas had eight each and Presley Holweg finished with seven. Reutzel and Casey Teague each had seven rebounds.
The Lady Raiders are back in action Monday when they head to Moberly. Tipoff time is set for 5 p.m. at Fitzsimmons-John Arena.
Notes: State Fair won 88-56 at Crowder Saturday to improve to 21-1 on the season and 6-1 in Region XVI play. The Lady Roadrunners lead Three Rivers by one-half game in the region standings. … Crowder is third in the region with a 3-3 region record and 15-7 overall record, while MAC (13-9, 1-5 XVI) is fourth and Moberly (11-12, 0-5) is fifth.
Mike Buhler - Daily American Republic