Raiders face top-scoring team in 1st round of national tournament

Led by a trio of outside shooting guards, Eastern Oklahoma State will test the Three Rivers defense in the first round of the NJCAA national tournament.

The Raiders earned the No. 9 seed and will play the No. 24 Mountaineers at noon Monday in Lubbock, Texas.

If the Raiders win, they advance to play No. 8 Casper at 2 p.m. Tuesday.

“Practice Sunday will be a little refresher,” Three Rivers coach Alex Wiggs said. “We went over the scouting report on Wednesday, and we’ll go over the scouting report again on Sunday so that we know personnel, that we know what we’re doing on the defensive end.”

Eastern Oklahoma State is averaging 86.3 points to lead the country, with the Raiders not far behind at 85.5 points for third place.

“We have to make sure that we test all shots, that we close out on shooters really, really quick. Most importantly, we need to finish a play with a rebound,” Wiggs said. “The easiest thing to see on them is just how athletic they are and how hard they play.”

Brayanna Polk leads Eastern Oklahoma State with 14.7 points and Tijanae Simmons is just behind her with 14.4 points.

“They are really skilled at the guard position. They can really shoot the ball and put the ball in the hole,” Wiggs said.

Combined, they shoot 15 3-pointers per game, with Simmons attempting 8.1 to lead the team in attempts.

However, Polk is a 25.5% shooting on 3s and Simmons is at 31.3%.

Shanequa Henry, third in scoring at 12.9 points, is making 40% of her four 3-pointers per game.

“The most recent film I saw, they mixed it up a little bit. They didn’t press as much. But they still denied really hard in the halfcourt and denied in the halfcourt,” Wiggs said.

Though, the Raiders lead the nation in opponents’ 3-point percentage (20.8%) and are second in opponents’ field goal percentage (30.6%). Opponents are shooting 39.1% overall against Eastern Oklahoma State. Three Rivers is grabbing 12.1 more rebounds per game than their opponents, while Eastern Oklahoma State gets 3.0.

Tilan Nolan cracked the Mountaineer starting lineup the final five games of the season and is averaging 11 points and 8.7 rebounds, including 4.1 offensive rebounds per game.

She’s scored in double figures in five of her past six games, including three games with more than 20 points. In the Region 2 championship, she led the Mountaineers with 21 points and nine rebounds on 10 for 12 shooting.

Eastern Oklahoma State plays a similar fast-paced, pressure defense style to the Raiders but prefers a short bench.

In the Region II championship, only eight Mountaineers played, and 16 of the team’s 20 bench points were from Crystal Ortiz.

Once you get past the team’s top six players, the roster was 1 for 9 shooting.

Conversely, 11 Raiders played against Moberly Area, with nine getting at least 12 minutes, and five of the six players off the bench scored.

Region XVI Player of the Year Chaylea Mosby leads the Raiders in scoring at 14.7 points on 45.8% shooting. She’s also making 40.9% of her eight 3-pointers per game.

Mosby is also second on the team in rebounding (6.1), assists (3.3) and steals (3.0).

Point guard Myia Yelder, another All-Region selection, leads the Raiders in assists (4.3) and steals (3.2). She’s averaging 14.4 points on 43.4% shooting.

After making her season debut in the regular-season finale, Karlee Holland has averaged 12.7 points and had 16 points off the bench in both region tournament games.

Hya Haywood and Autumn Dodd give the Raiders five players averaging double figures with 12.7 and 11.7 points per game.