POPLAR BLUFF – The Three Rivers Raiders had been on a mission for the past week and it was capped off with their fifth win in a row with a 61-57 victory over State Fair at the Libla Family Sports Complex on Saturday.
The Raiders previously squared off at State Fair back on Jan. 5 where they were handed a 70-65 loss. Going into Saturday, the Roadrunners had the game plan of guarding Lamar Wilkerson, and they held him to eight points. However that left plenty of room open for Keith Kiner to lead the Raiders with 25 points.
"He really took over and we needed him to," Raiders coach Brian Bess said. "We saw that we were open inside and we started to throw it in there. But they jumped it up and made it a rough game. We had 18 turnovers and we were playing loose with the ball at the end. But a win is a win."
Kinyon Hodges was also in double figures with 12 points and Paul Greene was one rebound away from a double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds. The Raiders also welcomed back Kevin Jones as he's been out since Nov. 12. Jones had six points for the game.
"We sure missed his hustle," Bess said. "We were glad to welcome him back into the lineup."
Three Rivers (13-8, 5-4 XVI) started the ballgame off with a 13-4 run capped off with a dunk by Hodges in the first seven minutes of play, but State Fair (12-9, 2-5 XVI) went on a 15-10 run to make it 30-19 Raiders with 6:20 until halftime and both teams kept it close with Three Rivers going into halftime up 34-29.
The Roadrunners were able to tie the game up at 40 seven and a half minutes into the second half and then went on a 10-6 run to make it 50-46 Roadrunners with 9:20 to play in the game.
The Raiders then got back into the game with Shannon Strickland capping off a 5-2 run with a 3-point bucket to get his guys back to within one and Jones got the steal and laid it in on the fast break to give the Raiders a 53-52 lead with a little over seven minutes remaining.
From there, the Raiders went on a 13-5 run with Strickland lobbing it to Greene for the jam to make it 66-57 Three Rivers with just over three minutes to go and the Raiders were able to hold on for the win.
