Undermanned Raiders show no quit in loss to region-leading Cardinals

In the first installment of the Rocky movie franchise, the titular fighter loses to heavyweight champion Apollo Creed, but goes the full 15 rounds with Creed and earns some respect in the process.

Saturday’s men’s basketball game between the Mineral Area College Cardinals and Three Rivers College at the Libla Family Sports Complex followed a similar storyline.

The underdog (and undermanned) Raiders lost 78-66, but made MAC — the top team in Region 16 and ranked No. 7 in Monday’s NJCAA poll — earn the win.

And just like Rocky Balboa in 1976, the Raiders earned a little respect in the process.

“We gave great effort tonight,” Three Rivers coach Brian Bess said after the game. “We definitely got outrebounded, but we were competing with it so that was what was good about our team. We were all trying to rebound because we’re that’s where we’re really outmanned is on the rebounding. We got outrebounded by (11), but yet we battled there and we really competed.”

The Raiders (13-17, 3-9 Region 16) led the most of the game’s first 11 minutes, taking an 18-11 lead on Caleb Young’s long jumper from the corner with 10:32 left in the first half.

However, MAC started to switch gears from there, tying the score at 18 on a 3-pointer from Preston Turner — a 2023 graduate of East Carter — with 8:55 left in the first half

MAC later took its first lead of the game (19-18) on Tyler Smith’s free throw with 7:56, then Amarion Dickerson capped a 16-2 Cardinals run with a trey from the corner with 5:31 left in the half to make it 27-20 Cardinals.

Three Rivers did not give up, closing the half with back-to-back triples from D.J. Prater and Gemani Charles to cut the Cardinals’ lead to 37-35 at the intermission.

Prater’s 3 from the corner 41 seconds into the second half cut the Mineral Area lead to 39-38, but MAC (28-2, 11-1) went on a 19-5 run which was capped by Doreante Tucker’s 3-pointer with 12:01 to go, making it 58-43.

“We knew that he was going to fire them up at halftime and we knew that we had to come back and keep competing and I thought we did," Bess said. "But they’re really talented, so kudos to them and Greg Heiar. He’s a great coach, national championship-type coach and a Division I guy. I can’t say enough good things about him. He’s a really good coach — and he’s a better person than he is a coach. He’s very respectful of (former Raiders head) coach (Gene) Bess.”

Again, the Raiders did not give up. Gemani Charles sank two free throws with 7:55 to go to cut the lead to 59-51, then Edison drained a triple from the wing with 3:18 to go to pull TRC within seven points at 67-60.

But that was as close as Three Rivers got the rest of the way.

Edison led the Raiders with 20 points, while Charles came off the bench and added 14 and Faheim Meran finished with 12 points, plus a game-high six assists. Prater ended the night with eight points, six rebounds and three steals.

“I even thought Cole Nichols came and did some good things for us,” Brian Bess said. “We had seven guys really contribute and that was good — everybody came in and gave good effort. Kyle really drove it to the paint well, hit a couple of 3s early on for us and got us going. When we went into halftime when we down two (points), that was a really good half.”

Three Rivers is back on the court Tuesday when it opens Region 16 tournament play against Missouri State-West Plains. TRC won two of its three regular-season matchup with the Grizzlies (10-20, 2-10), but lost the last matchup 68-65 at West Plains on Feb. 21.

“It’s going to be a battle and they’re playing well,” Brian Bess said. “They really outrebounded us last time at their place, so that was a thing. We’ve got to compete on the rebounding.”

Notes: Raiders’ freshman guard Demetris “Meechie” White is expected to play Tuesday after missing Saturday’s game with an injury. … Booster club and President’s passes will not be honored at Tuesday’s game since it is a postseason game.