WEST PLAINS — The Three Rivers College men's basketball team got just what it needed Saturday to shake off a two-game losing streak.
The Raiders used a big early run to quickly take control of Saturday's game at Missouri State University-West Plains, then held off a second-half surge by the Grizzlies to take an 84-72 win in a Region 16 game at the West Plains Civic Center.
Tyrell Smith hit a 3-pointer 45 seconds into the game to give West Plains (9-15, 0-8 Region XVI) a quick 3-0 lead, but the Raiders answered with a 13-0 run, taking a 13-3 lead on Drew Ward's jumper with 14:20 left in the first half and never trailed again.
"I thought we came out (focused) as a team and worked really hard to spurt out and get a good lead," Three Rivers coach Robert Kirby said. "(West Plains) coach Jared Phay is an excellent coach. He does a great job with his guys. He's a little undermanned right now with talent, but they're well-coached."
Antonio Williams' breakaway dunk with 91 seconds left in the first half gave the Raiders (18-7, 6-2) a 43-31 lead to match their biggest lead of the night, then Johann Pautsch's putback with eight seconds to go before the intermission made it a 47-34 game at halftime.
Pautsch's two-handed layup with 15:35 left in the game pushed the Three Rivers lead to 58-40 — the biggest of the game — but the Grizzlies came roaring back, going on a 17-2 run and cutting the lead to 60-57 on Smith's jumper with 8:03 remaining.
"They came back out the second (half and) they threw some straight-line punches," Kirby said. "We had to reshuffle the deck and find a way to compete, because they came out ready to go, and they came right after our throat like they should."
However, the Raiders answered with an 11-2 run of their own to push the lead back into double digits, going ahead 71-59 on a Williams putback with 4:05 remaining. TRC led by at least eight points the rest of the way on the way to the 12-point win.
Ward led the Raiders with 22 points and also had seven rebounds, six assists, two steals and a block, while Matt Hampton added 19 points and five assists, Pautsch had 15 points and eight rebounds to go with a steal and Williams finished the night with 11 points, 11 rebounds, a steal and a block.
"I thought (Antonio) did an outstanding job of really waking up," Kirby said. "He had been in a slight little slump there rebounding-wise, (but) he stepped up and did a great job of really standing out on the glass."
Ace Evans paced West Plains with 25 points and six rebounds, while the duo of Smith and Shunderrius Glass added 14 points apiece and Mekai Lindsey finished with seven points. Glass had five assists and four steals, while Lindsey added a pair of steals.
Another big factor in Saturday's contest was rebounding, as Three Rivers outrebounded the Grizzlies 46-20.
"When you play a team that has five guards — and all five of them can score and that's how they play —you're really concerned about (if) can you play big against them," Kirby said. "Are they going to force you to play small with them? Fortunately, we were able to hit the boards so hard that it made the difference in the game."
The Raiders open the final third of the Region XVI schedule when they host Moberly at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Libla Family Sports Complex. Three Rivers leads Moberly by a game in the region standings, with the two teams splitting their regular-season matchups as each team has won at home.
As with the Lady Raiders, the Raiders currently control their own destiny in the race for the top seed in the Region XVI tournament.
"When you're playing good teams in your league — and I think the league teams in our league are very good and very talented — anybody can get beat any night," Kirby said. … "With the teams that are in our league, we can compete with them, but we've got to be able to win our home games and steal a couple on the road. And that's with every league that you play in — if you can win all your home games and steal a couple on the road, I think you win the league."
Mike Buhler - Daily American Republic