Both men's basketball teams at Three Rivers and Southwest Tennessee entered Friday night at the Peoples Community Bank Thanksgiving Challenge at 4-4, but the Raiders proved to be the better team as they came out with a 68-53 win on their home floor. A strong first half helped the Raiders as head coach Brian Bess saw some areas in the second half that could be improved on. "We didn't have a great second half, but we were ready in the first half," Bess said. "I'm glad that we came out with the fast start and couldn't ask for better."

Three Rivers (5-4, 1-1 XVI) had three guys in double figures, led by the high-flying Kinyon Hodges with 16 points, followed closely by Lamar Wilkerson with 15 points and Lamont Jackson's 10-point night. "Kinyon is a third-year guy and I've been challenging him to take more shots," Bess said. "I told him to take three more shots a game in the flow and he said that it wasn't getting back to him. So that's something we've got to work on in sharing the ball a little more."

Three Rivers had a strong start to the game with a 12-3 run in the first five minutes. However the Saluqis (4- 5) would cut the Raider lead to five, but Three Rivers eventually padded their lead to 42-22 by halftime. The Raiders never gave up their lead in the second half, but the most glaring problem that Bess could see was the amount of turnovers the offense gave up that resulted in easy baskets for the Saluqis.

"At halftime, they were down 20, so they had to scramble a little bit," Bess said. "I think we didn't handle it that well. When you have a 20-point lead, you sometimes let your guard down and it leads to giving up points like that."

Three Rivers will conclude the Thanksgiving tournament tonight as they'll take on Northeastern Oklahoma A&M — a team coming off of a one-point thriller win over Otero College on Friday. "They're a good team that's well coached," Bess said. "Their point guard's (Thomasi Gilgeous-Alexander) brother plays for the Oklahoma City Thunder, and their other guard, Brian Moore Jr., has offers from Wichita State and DePaul, so you know he's going to be playing on TV next year. They'll have some of the toughest guards we've seen all year aside from John A. Logan." Tip off at the Libla Family Sports Complex is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Robert Augsdorfer - Daily American Republic