Lydia Rivers

Personal: Rivers is one of four children in her family. Her father, John, played basketball and football at Virginia Tech. Her cousin, Michael Jenkins, played college basketball at Winthrop before enjoying a professional career overseas. Her brother, Derek, played football at Youngstown State and has spent eight seasons in the National Football League with the Indianapolis Colts.

2023 Season: During her first Athletes Unlimited season, Rivers secured 3,470 leaderboard points to finish 22nd in the league standings. She tied for eighth in the league with 3,050 win points. She registered 300 or more leaderboard points in five of 15 games, including a season-high of 417 points against Team Mitchell on March 8. She appeared in 14 games off the bench and averaged 2.5 points and 3.7 rebounds per contest. Rivers registered her first Athletes Unlimited double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds against Team Hillmon on March 10. In that same game, she also equaled the league single-game standard with nine offensive rebounds.

Other Professional Experience: Rivers competed for Bembibre and Cadi La Seu in the Spanish LF Endesa league in 2023-24. She also played in 13 games for Constanta in Liga Nationala in Romania, where she averaged 9.2 points per game while shooting 50.0 percent from the field. She also grabbed 11.1 rebounds per outing and registered five double-double efforts. She netted a season-high 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field, along with 15 rebounds against Brasov on December 12, 2022. She collected a season-high 19 rebounds, including 10 defensive caroms, on December 29, 2022, against Rapid. She recorded 10 or more rebounds in 10 of 13 appearances. Rivers has also played overseas in Germany, Belgium, Turkey, and Latvia.

At Virginia Tech: Rivers spent one season at Virginia Tech after a four-year career at Radford. She appeared in 129 total games and averaged 7.5 points per outing, finishing with 961 points and 1,093 rebounds. She started in 23 of 30 contests in her lone season with the Hokies and led the team with an 8.1 rebounding average while recording three double-double performances. She also registered 34 blocked shots. At Radford, she earned a starting assignment in 68 of 99 games over four seasons and averaged 7.8 points and 8.6 rebounds per appearance with the Highlanders while shooting 44.8 percent from the field. She ranks fifth on the Highlanders’ career rebounding list (849) and grabbed 310 rebounds during the 2018-19 campaign, the fifth-highest single-season total in Radford history. Rivers was a First-Team All-Big South Conference selection in 2018-19 after posting 12.2 points and 10.3 rebounds per game. She was honored as the 2019 Big South Tournament MVP after guiding Radford to its first conference crown since 1996. She was also named to the 2015-16 Big South All-Freshman Team.