BROSELEY -- Twin Rivers picked up its effort from recent games, and consequently, improved its play on the boards, on defense and in transition.
The trio of boosts catapulted the No. 3 Royals to a 57-26 win over No. 14 Malden in the first round of the Lady Royals Classic on Saturday.
"I just thought our energy level was up tonight. We got over our mistakes quick instead of letting them pile up," Twin Rivers coach Kelly Westerfield said. "That's how this group works. If they can get some momentum and some energy, they build one on top of the other, on top of the other, on top of the other. That's what we have had a hard time doing lately, is tying together a bunch of good things because we get down when something bad happens."
Twin Rivers (5-4) had 42 rebounds, 10 more than its previous game despite a running clock through much of the fourth quarter.
"We gave ourselves some second- and third-chance opportunities," Westerfield said.
Brooke Blume led the team with eight rebounds and point guard Catey Hester had five. Katelyn South paced all scorers with 29 points, outscoring the entire Malden roster by a field goal.
After a bit of a slow start, the Royals sped up play and thrived in the second quarter.
Twin Rivers jumped ahead with the first eight points, thanks to a pair of 3-pointers by South, who took advantage of the Green Wave's 2-3 zone protecting the paint.
Twin Rivers, though, didn't score for the next three minutes, and with a minute left in the first quarter, Twin Rivers was ahead 8-5.
"There for a little bit (in the first quarter) it looked like we had a little feel of momentum. But it seemed like we would shoot ourselves in the foot all at the same time," Malden coach Josh Herring said.
South sank one more 3 near the end of the quarter, giving her nine of Twin Rivers' 13 points and putting the Royals ahead 13-5.
Twin Rivers missed its two free-throw attempts in the first quarter, then went 6 for 12 in the second quarter and 6 for 7 in the second half. Malden (2-5) spent nearly seven minutes in the bonus in the second quarter alone and 3 1/2 minutes in the double bonus.
"We got into too much foul trouble. That's just a tough thing for us, especially in this game," Herring said.
Blume had six free-throw attempts on three straight possessions early in the second quarter. She made five and coupled with a putback, Blume had her own seven-point run.
With her doing most of the work, Twin Rivers had a nine-point run, then closed the first half with a 10-3 run.
Malden's only field goal in the final 4 1/2 minutes of the second quarter was a late 3, and the Green Wave went into halftime down by 19 points.
"They really did a great job on getting up in our grill, good pressure defense. That caused a lot of disruption at the same time. When you have those combinations mixed together, one team is going to end up on top and the other one not so much," Herring said.
The Royals blew the game open in the third quarter after opening with a 17-2 run to go ahead by 34 points. For a span of 11 minutes between the second and third quarters, Malden had two field goals for five points.
"We were smart in adjusting our defenses for the most part," Westerfield said. "We had a little lag here and there, but we switched them a lot quicker than we've been switching them."
Lana Reed led Malden with 14 points.