ELLISVILLE, Miss. — It must have felt like déjà vu all over again for the Three Rivers College men's basketball team.

For the second year in a row, the Jones Bobcats sprinted out to a big early lead and never looked back in a 99-85 win of the Raiders on Tuesday night at A.B. Howard Gymnasium in a battle of NJCAA Tournament qualifiers from last season.

"This team has to mature to the (point) where they can take on the challenge early in the ballgame and understand it has to come with aggression at the start of the game," Three Rivers coach Robert Kirby said. "You can't wait until you get behind and then start to play the right way."

Three Rivers (3-3) took an early 2-0 lead on Matt Hampton's just 49 seconds into the game, but the Bobcats (4-0) responded with a 23-4 run, taking a 23-6 lead on Braylon Barnes's free throw with 13:34 left in the opening half to never trail again.

In fact, Jones — the No. 7 team in this week's NJCAA Division men's basketball rankings — never let the lead get under 15 points the rest of the half, pushing its lead to 20 points (43-23) on a Barnes layup with 6:32 left before halftime.

The Raiders did not give up, getting back-to-back baskets from Hampton and Davin Francis to cut the deficit to 43-27 with five minutes and change left in the opening half.

Jackson layup 51-28 However, Jones responded with an 8-1 run to take a 51-28 lead on Keron Jackson's layup with less than four minutes left in the first half.

The Bobcats led 57-37 at the intermission thanks in part to Jay Tyler's baseline fadeaway jumper just two seconds ahead of the halftime buzzer — and maintained a 19-20 point lead much of the second half.

Jones took its biggest lead of the game at 85-60 on Barnes's three-point play with 9:14 remaining, but the Raiders slowly began to chip away to make the outcome more respectable.

Francis drained a 3-pointer with less than four and a half minutes remaining to cut the Bobcat lead to 91-74, then an Antonio Williams layup with just over three minutes to go cut the lead to 93-79 — the first time since the 13:34 mark of the first half the Bobcats led by less than 15 points.

The two teams traded points the rest of the way, with Dylan Rowe's dunk in the final moments setting the final score and sealing the game.

The Bobcats dominated behind the 3-point line, going 10-for-15 on the evening, including 7-for-10 in the first half. Three Rivers outrebounded the Bobcats 43-28, but committed 17 turnovers that were turned into 19 points.

"We gave up 19 points off of turnovers," Kirby said. "That's the ballgame. You can't give up 19 points off of turnovers … and expect to have a chance."

Hampton led the Raiders with 26 points, while Williams added 20 points, 10 rebounds and two blocked shots and the duo of Francis and Myles Jones each had nine points. Sikou Diagouraga added eight points, 11 rebounds and a blocked shot off the bench.

Barnes paced Jones with 29 points, while Tyler added 24, Wesley Lindsey had 14, Jackson contributed 13 and Rowe finished with 12. Three Bobcats — Tyler, Rowe and Bob Dickson — each had six assists on the night.

Three Rivers is back in action at 5 p.m. Friday when it heads to Mineral Area College for the Bob Sechrest Classic and a matchup with Lake Land.

Mike Buhler - Daily American Republic