POPLAR BLUFF — To borrow an old Yogi Berra expression, Saturday, Nov. 1, might have felt like déjà vu all over again for the Three Rivers College men's college basketball team.
For the second time in as many nights, the Raiders fell behind big early against a nationally-ranked opponent at the Libla Family Sports Complex before rallying, only to ultimately lose the game in overtime.
Three Rivers trailed the No. 20 John A. Logan Volunteers by 14 points midway through the first half before rallying to take the lead late in the second half. But just like the previous night against No. 14 Gulf Coast State, TRC could not hold the lead and fell 95-91 in overtime to the Volunteers.
After trailing 29-15 with 10:37 left in the first half, the Raiders (0-2) responded with a 22-10 run, cutting the Logan lead to 39-37 as Josiah Cotto sank a free throw with 3:58 left in the first half. TRC trailed 45-42 at the intermission after Johann Pautsch added a pair of free throws with 20.8 seconds left before the break.
The Volunteers pushed their lead back up to 12 points (54-42) with a 9-0 run to open the second half, but Three Rivers answered with an 8-2 run to cut the lead to 56-50 on Tristin Fleming's transition layup with 13:33 left in the second half.
From there, TRC continued to slowly chip away at the John A. Logan lead, slicing the lead to three points (64-61) on Fleming's free throws with 7:32 left in regulation and cutting the lead to 67-66 on another Fleming free throw with 5:52 remaining in the second half.
Thirty-three seconds later, the Raiders (0-2) took their first lead since the early moments of the contest at 68-67 on Matt Hampton's layup with 5:19 to go in regulation. From there, it was a back-and-forth contest, with no team leading by two points through the end of regulation.
Johann Pautsch hit two free throws with 26.7 seconds left in the second half to give Three Rivers a 78-76 lead, but Justice Decker answered with a pair of free throws at the other end with 9.8 seconds left to tie the score at 78 and force overtime.
John A. Logan scored the first four points of the extra session to seize the momentum, but Pautsch's skyhook with 3:39 remaining and a Davin Francis bucket with 2:57 to go tied the score at 82.
The Volunteers responded again, getting a fadeaway jumper from Camron McDaniels with 2:30 remaining and a dunk by Marcus Eaves 17 seconds later to retake an 86-82 lead.
Three Rivers responded again, getting a pair of Francis free throws with 1:43 remaining to cut the deficit to 86-84, then Francis hit a 3-pointer roughly 30 seconds later to put his team ahead 87-86.
However, Francis was whistled for a technical foul for excessive celebration. McDaniels sank both technical free throws with 1:10 to go to put Logan ahead 88-87, then Christian Doerr added a layup 23 seconds later for a 90-87 lead as the Volunteers never trailed again.
Matt Hampton led the Raiders with 26 points, while Pautsch and Josiah Cotto each had 16, Tristin Fleming added 15 and Francis finished with 11.
Hampton also led the team on the boards with eight rebounds, while Pautsch added seven and Fleming had six. Hampton also had a pair of steals, while Pautsch blocked a pair of shots.
Three Rivers was back in action at home Monday when it hosted Arkansas State-Newport.
Mike Buhler - Daily American Republic