It was expected to be an opener comparable to Godzilla versus King Kong and ultimately ended up being a tale of The Avengers taking away a bunch of Christmas Carolers' lunch money.

The Three Rivers Lady Raiders used a blistering first half to pull away and roll to an easy 91-79 win over Wabash Valley Saturday in the season opener for both teams at the Drury Inn Lady Raiders Classic.

In Sunday's final game of the classic, Three Rivers defeated Olney Central 93-58.

Both teams have been NJCAA national tournament qualifiers for the last two years and both are highly expected to return.

"What I love is that there are still things we have to get better at and we still won the game," Three Rivers head coach Alex Wiggs said. "

Three Rivers was keyed by outshooting Wabash Valley 13-2 in 3-point makes, a difference of 39-6 in points, and the Lady Raiders bench outscored its guests 45-20 with seven double-figure scorers.

Mariah Smith (15 points), Mariyha Hart (14), Niaisya Ervin, and Amiya Johnson (11 apiece), and Ari Winston, Da'Kariya Jackson and Jenna McMillen (10 each) all hit big for the Lady Raiders.

"It shows how deep this team is," Wiggs said. "We talk about how balanced we area and how many girls can score the ball in a variety of ways. It was a great first game."

"My teammates would just drive and I would just drop and lift," Hart said after hitting three of the 13 triples. "They were kind of playing off of me and I just found my spots. Most of my 3s I got in transition.

"We are a very great shooting team and we have good ball movement with the extra pass. We find the open teammate."

The Lady Raiders used a 23-point first-half lead, buoyed by a commanding first quarter and excellent outside shooting to essentially end the game before players could take a seat at intermission, but to the opponent's credit, Three Rivers still had to play the 40 minutes out.

"They are a really good team," Wiggs said. "(Both teams) have a lot of new kids and that's something we have to continue to work on — finishing games. I thought we played 7-8 minutes great each quarter and then the last minute, minute-and-a-half, we didn't finish quarters."

The game also had plenty of slop factors as the teams combined for 70 turnovers (36 by Three Rivers) and 56 personal fouls were called, extending the game a good 20 more minutes.

"There are things we obviously have to work on," Wiggs said. "You have two teams — one was 28-1 and the other was 28-2 — and in my opinion are two of the top 15 teams in the county that are crazy enough to open with each other. Ball pressure and that stuff, that's how we both play and it's a lot different when we go out there from practice and put it out there in the first game.

"If we would have eight turnovers and played perfectly and only won by 12? I don't know if we can get any better throughout the year. The thing I love is that there are opportunities to get better."

The visiting Lady Warriors did acquit themselves well after halftime as they battled tooth and nail with their hosts but Three Rivers was empowered by a massive lead and it showed as the lead waffled between 17-25 points.

Three Rivers led 67-49 after three quarters.

Wabash Valley pulled within 12 early in the final quarter, but then Three Rivers found itself again and a 6-0 run set the result back in balance.

The first quarter gave some teasers of how this could have been a heavyweight fight between the two as the teams exchanged microbursts and settled into a 9-all tie in the first three minutes.

Then suddenly the game quickly morphed into a reboot of an 80s Tyson-Spinks duel and the Lady Raiders went on a 15-0 surge behind relentless pressure at the top and ice-cold triples combined with a barrage of layups to lead 24-9.

Ultimately the teams went to their corners with Three Rivers up 31-15 after the first 10 minutes came to an end.

The start of the second quarter was more Mona Lisa than Sistine Chapel as the teams exchanged turnovers and a variety of awkward misses, but thankfully the 3-ball was kind to the hosts as they went up 40-18 with 6:41 left before halftime.

The rest of the first half was more of the same and thankfully for Wabash Valley, halftime came relieving them from the onslaught of a 54-31 Lady Raiders advantage.

The Lady Raiders were led by Smith (12 points) and Hart (10) while they hit 8-of-17 threes and 50 percent of all shots in the first 20 minutes. The defense also forced an overwhelming 20 Lady Warrior turnovers and held Wabash Valley to 32 percent shooting.

Three Rivers did commit 11 turnovers itself and were outrebounded 21-15.

Against Olney Central Sunday, the Lady Raiders jumped out to a 24-13 lead after the opening period and led 52-28 at half en route to the 35-point win.

Winston paced a balance Three Rivers attack with 17 points, while Smith added 13 and the duo of McMillen and Jackson each chipped in 10.

Alan Dale - Daily American Republic