POPLAR BLUFF – On paper going into Saturday, Three Rivers was the underdog as they had a .500 record and winless against Region XVI while No. 14 Mineral Area was riding a 12-game winning streak. At the end of the night, the Cardinals' streak came to an end as the Raiders came out with an 83-57 win in front of the home crowd at the Libla Family Sports Complex.
"Our guys believed, the coaches believed (Saturday)," Raiders coach Brian Bess said. "We were excited that we got a few home games in a row going in after the loss at State Fair. Every guy looked at themselves and wondered why weren't playing to our full potential. At the end of the day, we just beat a very good team."
The Raiders (9-8, 1-3 XVI) had a strong offensive performance with four of the five starters hitting double figures. They were led by Lamar Wilkerson dropping 24 points while Keith Kiner contributed 16, Kinyon Hodges had 13 and Shannon Strickland finished the night with 12 as he was hot from 3-point range in the first half.
"We saw some leadership on the floor and that was huge for us," Bess said. "Shannon was really ready to go in the first half and we went 9-for-10 on three's as a team in the first half so you know we were ready to go."
Three Rivers got out in front early and never looked back as they made it a 26-16 ballgame with 8:34 until halftime led by 11 points from Wilkerson in that stretch. The Raiders eventually made their lead a 17-point advantage as it was 47-30 at halftime.
"We haven't shot the ball like we've been able to except maybe during the second half of the SAU Tech game and (Saturday)," Bess said. "We've been waiting on that, but (Saturday) we shot it very well and our defense was on point."
The defense was able to keep Mineral Area (14-4, 1-1 XVI) at bay in the second half as Three Rivers was able to hold on for their first region win. The Cardinals only shot 42% from the field and 26% from 3-point range for the game while the Raiders made 53% of their shots from the field and 64% from beyond the arc.
"Our offense is going to come and go, but our defense is going to be a staple," Bess said. "We have the potential to be really good on defense and (Saturday) we were."
The Raiders will take a short break from region play as they'll host Motlow State on Wednesday. Three Rivers played them on the road back on Nov. 8 where they were handed an 80-76 loss.
"Motlow has two guards that are playing very well right now," Bess said. "Kevin (Jones) told me he was watching film from our last game against them since he has nothing better to do while he's out and he said that he was playing very good defense and they still scored on him. We want to get a little revenge on that."
The Lady Raiders were supposed to play Shawnee before the Raiders and Motlow game at 7 p.m. but the womens game was canceled by Shawnee due to COVID concerns within their program.
Robert Augsdorfer - Daily American Republic