SEDALIA — It's been a while since the Three Rivers College men's basketball team won its first two Region XVI games of the season.
How long? Try for seven years.
For the first time since the 2018-19 season — the penultimate season of the Gene Bess era — the Raiders are 2-0 in Region XVI play, thanks to an 83-64 win over the State Fair Roadrunners on Saturday at the Davis Multipurpose Building.
Three Rivers (14-5, 2-0 XVI) led almost the entire way on Saturday, taking the lead for good at 6-4 on Matt Hampton's free throws just 2:27 into the game. Those free throws were the beginning of a 7-0 run which was capped by a Tristin Fleming 3-pointer in front of the Roadrunners' bench with 16:11 left in the opening session.
State Fair (9-11, 0-2) did not give up, cutting the lead to one point at 11-10 on Chanier Joseph's triple with 14:42 left in the first half and trailed just 17-15 after an Andin Ashford putback with 11:24 left before halftime. However, back-to-back treys by Drew Ward and Fleming pushed the Raiders' lead back to 23-15 with 10:32 remaining before the break.
The Roadrunners answered once again, cutting the Three Rivers lead to 27-24 on J.P. Ndong's fadeaway jumper with 7:23 left in the first half, but the Raiders closed the half on a 15-0 run to take command and take a 45-26 lead to the locker room.
Hampton's layup with 4:39 left in the half gave Three Rivers a 36-26 lead — its first double-digit lead of the day — then Antonio Williams' three-point play with 1:45 before the break pushed the lead to 17 points at 43-26 and another Hampton layup with 45 seconds left capped the run.
Fleming's free throws with 15:35 left in the game pushed the Raiders' lead to 53-32, but State Fair kept fighting, cutting the Three Rivers lead to 67-54 on an Ashford triple with 6:24 left in the game. However, that was as close as the Roadrunners got the rest of the way as the Raiders pushed the lead back to 74-56 on a Manuel Camboma basket with 3:08 remaining.
Williams led the Raiders with 21 points, nine rebounds and a pair of steals, while Hampton added 20 points, six rebounds, nine assists and four steals and Camboma had 12 points and 14 rebounds for a double-double to go with three steals.
Allen Stoddard added 13 points off the bench as he was 6-for-6 from the field, while Fleming had 11 points and Ward added six points, five assists and two steals.
Ndong led State Fair with 20 points, while the duo of Ashford and Gavin "Q" Murphy each had 13. Chanier Joseph added three steals.
As a team, the Raiders shot 56% from the field (30-for-54) and 44% from behind the 3-point line (7-for-16) while holding the Roadrunners just under 40% from the field at 23-for-58. Three Rivers also had a 39-21 edge on the board, dished off 24 assists and had 13 steals, but committed 26 turnovers.
Three Rivers is off until next Saturday, when the Raiders host Mineral Area in a Region XVI contest. Tipoff time at the Libla Family Sports Complex is slated for 4 p.m.
Notes: Three Rivers snapped an 11-game losing streak against Mineral Area in the Region XVI Tournament last season, but has not beaten the Cardinals at the Libla Family Sports Complex since Feb. 16, 2022. … In other Region XVI action on Saturday, Moberly downed Missouri State-West Plains 90-60.
Mike Buhler - Daily American Republic