Raiders win helps them bounce back in more ways than one

Just about 48 hours after they endured the horror of having their team bus rammed by an 18-wheeler on the road back to Poplar Bluff, the Three Rivers Community College men’s basketball team returned to the much cozier confines of the Libla Family Sports Complex Saturday night.

Yes, some of the Raiders might have been dealing with some residual injuries and other unwelcome souvenirs from the crash in Marian, Illinois, but taking on the Lewis & Clark Trailblazers as a living collective of Raiders basketball players was as good as it gets.

The Raiders were clearly a bit up-and-down, but when it came down to getting the job done, the Three Rivers squad stepped up and recorded a 75-65 win to bounce back from Thursday’s loss on the court and the adversity off it.

Leading Three Rivers (7-10) were Mo Niang (16 points, eight rebounds), Lamont Jackson (14 points), Makur Jongkuch (13 points, eight rebounds), and Jordan Hamilton (12 points)

"It was absolutely important to win because of the adversity we've been through," Three Rivers head coach Brian Bess said. "I felt like winning would fix a lot of things. If we had lost, it could have gone a lot of different directions."

The defense wasn’t the issue early on for Three Rivers as they were able to keep L&C in check but the Raiders shot was still trying to find itself.

However, back-to-back treys gave the Blazers their biggest lead in the early going, 16-10, at the 10:16 mark.

An and-one by D.J. Prater and a trickling triple by Caleb Young got the Raiders back into a 16-16 tie two minutes later.

Young then dropped in a cold under duress 3-bomb to get Three Rivers up 19-18 at the 7:18 mark.

The lead pushed up to 28-22 with 5:25 left in the half on a catch-and-shoot three for the Raiders who built a nine-point lead multiple times before heading into halftime up 37-28.

Three Rivers was led by Jongkuch’s seven points while Hamilton and Young each finished with six points in the first 20 minutes as they only shot 36 percent from the field but held the Trailblazers to 33 percent on the flip side and forced 10 turnovers compared to their own four.

The beginning of the second half was definitely a downer as the Trailblazers outscored the Raiders 22-12 to take a 50-49 lead as the local favorites seemed to have lost a step out of the intermission.

"We didn't want them to come out flat and they did," Bess said. "One of our guys said that he was really tired and there were things that drained on him. Emotionally I think that was something I was worried about because we were drained. I was proud of the guys because they battled through that."

However, the Raiders responded again with another good run in the middle of the half, going on a 12-2 blitz over the next three-plus minutes to go back up 61-52.

The teams essentially stayed on equal footing from that point on and the Raiders were able to pull off a needed win for possibly more than just the record’s sake.

"We played good defense at times and (L&C) made 5-of-25 three-pointers so that helps," Bess said. "Overall, it was a good 'W' for us."

Three Rivers plays next at home against MSU-West Plains 7 p.m. January 14.