Rivers scored 37 to lead Ashley girls basketball into third round of playoffs

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Saniya Rivers was on a mission Thursday night.

The junior guard scored the first 11 points of the contest and matched her season high with 37 to lead No. 5 Ashley to a 72-57 home victory over No. 12 Knightdale in the second round of the NCHSAA 4A playoffs.

The victory sent the Screaming Eagles (24-4) into the third round for the first time since 2014. They will play at No. 4 Hillside on Saturday at a time to be determined.

“We’ve broken so many records this season,” said Rivers, who also added 17 rebounds, nine steals, five assists and three blocks. “We’ve beaten teams we haven’t beaten in years and we went unbeaten in the league for the first time. I’m new to the school, but I’m doing it with a team I love.”

Rivers drained a pull-up jumper on the first possession of the game to begin a personal 11-0 run in the first 55 seconds.

“Anything can happen in the playoffs and teams get upset all the time, so we had to come out with that killer mentality and play Screaming Eagles basketball,” Rivers said.  

Ashley went cold at the beginning of the second quarter and Knightdale capitalized by closing the gap to 21-19, but the Screaming Eagles went on a 12-1 run over the final 4:23 of the half to take a 33-20 lead into the locker room after Rivers beat the buzzer with another jumper.

Brynn Little scored six of her season-high 14 points during the run. The junior forward went 7 of 14 from the field, grabbed seven rebounds and came away with four steals.

“I was talking to Brynn all during school and telling her the tallest player on their team was like 5-8, so I knew she could have her way with points and rebounds,” Rivers said. “She definitely stepped up.”

Mia Seemadray’s hit back-to-back three-pointers late in the third quarter to extend the lead to 19 points and it never dipped below double digits. Seemadray chipped in 11 points by going 3 of 4 from beyond the arc.