In November, the historic regular season win streak by the Three Rivers Lady Raiders women's basketball team dating back to 2020 came to an end at the hands of Mineral Area College.
On Saturday, the nation's 15th-ranked team had a chance at payback when the Lady Cardinals came to Poplar Bluff.
It may not have come easy, but thanks to a ruthless defensive performance in the second quarter that continued from there and 20 points and six rebounds from Maiya Bergdorf and 14 points and eight rebounds from D'Kariya Jackson the Lady Raiders pulled away for a 74-62 win at the libla Family Sports Complex.
Three Rivers (17-2, 7-1 Region XVI) clearly had payback in mind and their intense body language belied that fact, but the Lady Cardinals (15-7, 5-2), perhaps buoyed by the earlier victory, came out flying.
Using a sizzling outside game consisting of five made triples in the first quarter, Mineral Area erupted to a 21-12 lead through 10 minutes as the hosts struggled to find offensive consistency and an answer to their opponent's shooting success.
"I felt like we obviously let your shooters get hot and that had been a point of emphasis from the first game," Three Rivers head coach Alex Wiggs said. "We needed to know where the shooters were and close out on them.
"The girls did a great job making that adjustment after the first quarter."
In the second quarter, the Lady Raiders defense definitely improved when it held Mineral Area to three points over the first five-plus minutes and they crept closer at 24-18.
A Jackson hoop-and-harm cut the MAC lead to 24-21 and the Lady Cardinals began to get proverbial blisters around their neck where Three Rivers breathed fire as its momentum raged.
The deficit shrunk to one on two separate occasions — the closest of the first half — and the Lady Raiders finally got over the hump as Bergdorf put down two free throws at 1:47 before the half to give her team a 28-27 edge.
Bergdorf then added a layup off a sweet dish by Jackson that made Dairy Queen jealous and suddenly the home team was up three.
Another MAC triple even the score and that's how the teams settled it knotted at 30-all as the fans took to the concession stand readying for what promised to be a sizzling second half.
"It's doing what we've been working on as a team: Have high active hands and put on ball pressure," Wiggs said. "Those are two things we have to continue to do to be successful. We worked on it for two months since we played them the first time."
The third quarter looked more of the same as both teams really struggled to get clean looks against defenses that really focused on stopping the other any way possible.
An Amiya Johnson triple was the high point of a small blitz of the Lady Cardinals to end the half and get a seven-point lead before the Lady Raiders moved to the final quarter with an eventual 54-49 lead.
Defense ultimately got Three Rivers the edge as it surrendered only 28 points through the middle quarters compared to the 21 through the first 10 minutes.
The first three minutes of the final quarter saw the Lady Cardinals break even and tie the game at 56, forcing Wiggs into calling a timeout.
MAC ultimately got the lead back, but the Lady Raiders crawled back into the lead and another Jackson and-one pushed them back up four, 62-58 as the four-minute mark introduced itself.
Then back-to-back layups in transition by Bergdorf and Ari Winston pushed the Lady Raiders into a 66-60 lead with 2:50 remaining.
The lead expanded to eight and this time the Lady Cardinals didn't have enough gas to fill their tank and the Lady Raiders had their revenge.
"Every single region game is important," Wiggs said. "Especially if we can host the region championship. I love it because it makes every, single region game mean a little more.
"We have got to make sure we take care of business offensively and defensively to give us a chance to win every single night."
Three Rivers held MAC to 35.1 percent from the field while forcing 24 turnovers. The Lady Cardinals made only four triples over the last three quarters compared to the five made in the first 10 minutes.
"It feels good and we knew we had to turn it around," Jackson said. "We knew we had to come back and fight back. We took a punch, but we kept fighting. It's a big win and it gave us one up to host the Region championship game here.
"It feels good to beat them."
Alan Dale - Daily American Republic