The Nansemond River High School girls’ basketball team grounded the visiting Hickory High School Lady Hawks on Tuesday to improve to 3-0 on the season.

“I thought we did a great job of just playing basketball and executing some things that we’ve been working on for a while,” Lady Warriors coach R. Calvin Mason Sr. said the day after his squad’s 79-24 win. “And I thought defensively, we were intense the whole game.”

Offensively, Nansemond River hurried things in the second quarter, the coach said, but in the other three quarters it was quite productive.

The Lady Warriors led 29-6 after the first period, 36-11 at halftime and 53-21 after three quarters.

Sophomore point guard Briana Autrey gave a standout performance for the second straight game, registering 22 points, seven steals, six rebounds and six assists.

Autrey, who emerged as a star for Nansemond River last year, is averaging right around 18 points and almost six assists a game this season.

Senior guard/forward Aneka Yelverton poured in 29 points against Hickory, to go with five boards.

Mason said she did a good job of not just relying upon her outside shot but also getting to the basket.

“That was one of our points of emphasis in the offseason,” he said.

The only other senior on the Lady Warriors roster this year is center Sabre Clegg, who contributed 11 points and 12 rebounds on Tuesday.

Nansemond River lost only a couple players from the 2014-2015 Lady Warriors that went 17-7, tying for first place in the Ironclad Conference during the regular season but then falling in the semifinals of the conference tournament to King’s Fork High School.

The 2015-2016 Lady Warriors include two seniors, four juniors, four sophomores and one freshman.

They are adjusting to a new conference this year after Nansemond River moved up to Group 5A.

“We’re in a conference we feel like we can compete in,” Mason said.

He expects the going to be tougher in 5A overall, plus, the Lady Warriors now share a classification with the Princess Anne High School Lady Cavaliers.

“They’re kind of the standard for basketball in this region,” Mason said. “We feel like we worked hard enough to play at that level.”

Nansemond River is returning to full health, as key junior forward/guard Daijah Norris saw her first court time of the season on Tuesday after being sidelined due to injury.

Junior shooting guard Cassidy Simmons was out for eight days but is expected to be a major contributor this year.

“I think Nijha Shannon’s going to take a huge step forward,” Mason said of his junior guard/forward, who, similar to Norris, does a little bit of everything for NR.

The coach said junior backup point guard Tashira Burch is the most improved player on his team from last year, able to play both guard and wing.

Sophomore center Tion Arthurs, standing at 6 feet, 1 inch, is a developing post player that Mason said he thinks will be an important force on the team before the year’s over.

Nansemond River (3-0) hosts Indian River High School on Thursday, visits Western Branch High School on Friday and then participates in the She Got Game Classic, which runs Dec. 11-13 in Washington D.C.