MOBERLY, Mo. — The Three Rivers College men's basketball team's 65-53 loss to the Moberly Area Greyhounds Wednesday might not have been the Raiders' biggest loss of the night.
Sophomore guard Makur Jongkuch went down with a leg injury with 6:25 left in the game and had to taken off the floor in a leg cast. Three Rivers head coach Brian Bess said Jongkuch snapped his right tibia and was taken to University Hospital in Columbia.
Bess praised team trainer Costas Papinicolau for his efforts in handling Jongkuch's injury.
"(Costas) had an air up splint that immobilized the injury," Bess said. "It's great to have your trainer who's prepared for a terrible injury. It was like (the injury) Kevin Ware from Louisville" suffered in 2013.
Wednesday's game also was a return to facing tough competition for the Raiders (8-11, 1-3 Region XVI), who played their eighth game this season against a team that is either currently ranked in the NJCAA poll, or was earlier in the season. Moberly is ranked ninth in this week's NJCAA poll.
Despite that, Three Rivers led most of the first half against Moberly (17-3, 4-0), taking a 20-10 lead on Caleb Young's basket with about nine minutes left in the first half.
But from there, the Greyhounds dominated the remainder of the half, running off eight straight points to make it a two-point game (20-18) on Jaheim Tanksley's layup with under seven minutes left until halftime.
Mo Niang's third 3-pointer of the first half less than a minute later briefly stopped the Moberly run and made it 23-18 in favor of the Raiders, but Tanksley and Tre'von Spillers combined to score the game's next nine points to put Moberly up 27-23 with roughly 2:20 left until halftime.
"We had a bad stretch in the last nine minutes of the first half against their press," Bess said. "We have been working daily in practice on what I call Gene Bess 'overload drills.' We have been preparing for the press."
The Greyhounds would never trail again, leading 31-25 at the intermission. Moberly then opened the second half on a 7-0 run, capped by Tanksley's free throws with 17:20 left in the game that made it 38-25 in favor of the Greyhounds.
Additionally, big man Hosana Kitenge picked his fourth foul in the opening minute of the second half as he attempted to draw a charge — which Bess called a "huge" loss for the Raiders.
"It was a missed call, but the officials are really good people that cared for (Jongkuch later)," Bess said.
Moberly maintained a double-digit lead the rest of the way and led 60-44 when Jongkuch was injured with 6:25 left in the contest.
"Defensively, we played really well," Bess said. "We held Moberly to a .377 field-goal percentage and to 65 points. They average 83."
Tanksley led the Greyhounds with a game-high 28 points.
Niang paced Three Rivers with 18 points, while Lamont Jackson added 13 and Young had nine.
The Raiders return to the court Saturday night when they head to Sedalia to take on State Fair.
"We have a tough bounce back game against State Fair on Saturday," Bess said. "We lost to them at our place in overtime."
Mike Buhler - Daily American Republic