It has often been said revenge is a dish that is best served cold.
And it was very cold Saturday evening at the Libla Family Sports Complex as the Three Rivers College women's basketball team raced out to a huge early lead on the way to a 100-63 thrashing of the State Fair Lady Roadrunners.
The 37-point win by the Lady Raiders avenges a 56-49 loss last month to State Fair in Sedalia.
"We knew that they're a very good team, they're a very physical team — and they're a team that if you're not the aggressor, they will come out and they will out-physical you and they will out-tough you," Three Rivers coach Alex Wiggs said. "That (was) the challenge all week was to make sure that we did not let them out-physical us. I thought that we did a good job of matching their physicality."
For the game, Three Rivers shot a blistering 62 percent (38-for-61) from the field, including 70 percent (26-for-37) inside the arc as the Lady Raiders (19-4, 5-2 Region 16) raced out to a 33-13 lead after the opening period and never looked back.
"The girls came out and followed the game plan," Wiggs said. "We started off in our press, got some early steals and we finally finished easy baskets early. There's been several games where we started off a little slow because we missed layups — we've missed those wide-open pull-up (jumpers) or those wide-open 3s. I thought it was really nice for our girls to see those first couple go in."
Three Rivers extended its edge to 58-24 at the intermission and never was challenged the rest of the way.
Da'Kariya Jackson led the Lady Raiders with 25 points, while Alexia Weaver added 20 and Kaleigh Thompson had 14, plus a game-high seven rebounds.
Violeta Rojas Narváez paced State Fair (19-4, 4-3) with 13 points off the bench.
Three Rivers has another huge Region 16 matchup Wednesday evening at the Libla Family Sports Complex when region leader Mineral Area comes to town. Tipoff is set for 5 p.m.
"Region 16 is really good this year — really good," Wiggs said. "Another opportunity against MAC on Wednesday. We're going to … come in Monday and get ready to go for MAC and make sure that we're locked in and that we're focused.
"They're another team that's very physical and likes to control the tempo, so that's going to be big key in that game is controlling the tempo, matching their physicality — and again, who's going to knock down those open shots, those easy shots?"
Mike Buhler - Daily American Republic