The Three Rivers women's basketball team was in control from start to finish as they easily took care of Lincoln Trail 94-49 Tuesday night at the Libla Family Sports Complex.

The fourth-ranked Raiders kept up their hot start to the season improving their record to 7-0.

The Raiders showed how well they can share the ball as five players were in double figures led by Autumn Dodd's 15-point night and Ahniya Melton had a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds.

"My teammates were getting me in those open spots," Melton said. "Hitting each other in the open spots has definitely contributed to our success so far. We definitely shoot it better when we kick it out to each other."

The Three Rivers coaching staff liked what they saw on their home floor.

"This is been how we've been all year," head coach Alex Wiggs said. "We're pretty consistent getting five players in double figures — sometimes six.

"I thought rebounding was huge. Obviously Ahniya with the double-double and Kourtney Kendrick had seven points and 10 rebounds. We always try to score off of half of the offensive rebounds and we were right on that mark with 24 second-chance points."

The Raiders were dominant from the start as they started the game off with an 11-3 run in the first four minutes of action and ended the first quarter up 20-8.

Lincoln Trail couldn't find an answer in the second quarter as Three Rivers ran up the score to 43-17 at halftime.

Not much changed when the teams switched ends as the Raiders got off to an 11-4 run in the first 4 1/2 minutes of the second half and Dodd capped off the third with a steal and a layup to make it 71-39 Raiders going into the final 10 minutes.

There wasn't much Lincoln Trail could do to change the outcome as Three Rivers cruised to the victory.

Region play is rapidly approaching for the Raiders as they'll head out to Park Hills for the Region XVI Classic.

"We've got Moberly (Area) on Friday and Mineral Area on Saturday," Wiggs said. "Moberly is a top-25 team, we know how tough they are and we know we have to be locked in and ready to go.

"We don't have to do anything special and put 25 more points on the board. We just have to go out there and do our job and limit Moberly's second-chance opportunities."

Tipoff against Moberly Area is 3 p.m. Friday while Saturday's contest is at 5 p.m. against host Mineral Area.

Robert Augsdorfer - Daily American Republic