The Three Rivers men's basketball team tried making a ballgame out of their tilt against Moberly at the Libla Family Sports Complex on Saturday night, but the Raiders came up short 65-59.
"(Moberly) got off to a great start in the game, but we kept battling," Raiders coach Brian Bess said. "They're a very good athletic team. They've got a couple of guys going to Divisiion I and they let us know about it on the floor."
A slow start offensively didn't help their cause, but the Raiders (6-6, 0-2 XVI) defense kept them in the game as they held a team that averages 93 points per game to only 65 on the scoreboard.
Bess said that the biggest positive from the game was the Raiders' play on defense with the team recording nine steal, three blocks and forcing 15 turnovers. Paul Greene led the team in getting defensive boards with eight and a total of 11 rebounds on the night.
Offensively Lamar Wilkerson led the way with 21 points to his credit along with Kinyon Hodges and Keith Kiner breaking double figures with 18 and 15 respectively.
These two teams will face off a couple of more times this season with the Raiders making the trip out to Moberly on Jan. 19 and the Greyhounds returning to Poplar Bluff on Feb. 9.
"That's the great thing about Region XVI," Bess said. "Not winning this game was a blow to us, but we feel like we're able to play with them and we shouldn't be scared of them. We kind of had the jitters early because it is Moberly and maybe we give them a little too much respect sometimes."
Moberly Area (9-3, 1-1 XVI) was rolling early while the Raiders struggled offensively making only one shot from the field in the first nine minutes on a layup by Lamont Jackson. However Wilkerson started to get hot and fought his way to the basket a couple of times to make it 11-8 Moberly at the 10 minute mark of the first half.
A few minutes later, Wilkerson got the game back to even draining a 3-point bucket to tie it up at 16 with 7:30 remaining until halftime, but the Greyhounds were able to regain the lead and go into the break up 33-26.
Moberly Area was able to maintain their lead in the second half, but the Raiders clawed their way back capped off with a couple of three's from Hodges to make it 56-53 Moberly with less than four minutes to go. But Three Rivers were unable to get over the hump as Moberly Area took the win.
The Raiders will have a quick turnaround as they'll take on undefeated Southwestern Illinois College at St. Louis Community College at 3 p.m. today. SWIC head coach Jay Harrington is the active leader in wins among NJCAA coaches.
Robert Augsdorfer - Daily American Republic