LUBBOCK, Texas — Thursday's first-round NJCAA women's basketball tournament game between Three Rivers College and the Gulf Coast State College Commodores might have been decided by a couple of runs.
First, Gulf Coast State scored 14 consecutive points to take the lead for good early in the second quarter, then used another big run over the third and fourth quarters to pull away and take a 71-47 win over the Lady Raiders at the Rip Griffin Center.
Three Rivers ends its season 22-6.
"Gulf Coast has been a top-10 team all year long," Three Rivers coach Alex Wiggs said. "They're a really, really good team — really physical and really athletic. They've got a couple kids that can really, really shoot the ball as we saw. They've got a chance to make a run in this tournament."
The Lady Raiders took an 11-6 lead late in the opening period on Ahniya Melton's basket, but Gulf Coast State scored the last five points of the quarter and the first nine of the second to go up 20-11 on Abbey Cracknell's layup roughly two minutes into the second quarter.
TRC trailed 26-16 at halftime.
"I thought we were in a good spot," Wiggs said. "We had some foul trouble with Mariah Smith, who was playing really well and with Maiya Bergdorf who was playing really well. I felt like we were in a good spot, coming back out of halftime just down 10 (points)."
The Commodores pushed their lead to 41-24 in the third period as Zariah Johnson drained a 3-pointer with 5:45 left in the quarter, but Three Rivers fought back, cutting the GCSC lead to 45-35 on Ari Winston's free throws with 3:11 left in the frame.
However, Gulf Coast State closed the quarter on a 10-2 run to take a 55-37 lead to the final period, then scored the first six points of the fourth take a 24-point game (61-37) on Imani Smith's triple with 8:21 to go and effectively ice the opening-round contest.
"We cut it down to 10 and had about four or five possessions where we got a couple good looks," Wiggs said. "We just missed a couple of layups, I think we missed a 3 and then turned it over twice. … Against a really good team, you've got to convert on those five possessions, because they went on that other run and then it became 15-18 points, right in that area the rest of the way."
The loss overshadowed an impressive performance on the boards by Bergdorf, who pulled down 17 rebounds to go with 11 points in her final game for the Lady Raiders.
"I thought that she competed," Wiggs said. "I thought that she battled and that she made some great moves around the basket and kept a lot of plays alive by those rebounds, getting her hand on it and then obviously finishing some big plays on the defensive end whenever we needed some stops."
Niasiya Ervin led the Lady Raiders with 13 points off the bench, while Mariah Smith added 11, including hitting three of her four shots behind the arc.
"I thought those two were huge today," Wiggs said. "I thought they played really, really well. Mariah Smith got in some foul trouble, but her first 3 of the game was from the logo. When it went in, I knew from there that she was going to have a pretty good offensive game. …
"I thought (Ervin) was aggressive. I thought that that's what we saw in her all year long. And really, really glad that she she had that type of game today. She's been working her tail off and really helped us out today in a big game."
Imani Smith paced Gulf Coast State with 20 points, while Ciante Downs added 14, Alieghya Bartholomew chipped in 12 and Zaria Johnson finished with 10.
Notes: Gulf Coast State was the No. 11 seed at the NJCAA women's tournament, while the Lady Raiders were the 22nd seed. … Gulf Coast State now will face Jones College of Mississippi in the round of 16 Friday. … Region 16 rival Moberly lost its game in the round of 16 Thursday, dropping a 54-49 decision to No. 1 South Georgia Tech.
Mike Buhler - Daily American Republic