PARK HILLS – Mineral Area returned the favor to the Three Rivers men's basketball team as the Raiders suffered a 77-60 loss on Saturday to the Cardinals. A six-game winning streak was snapped for Three Rivers while Mineral won their sixth straight.
"They played harder than we did," Raiders coach Brian Bess said. "We expected them to play harder since we last saw them, but we didn't expect them to play this hard. They started out in man defense and then jumped into zone. That probably upset our offense a little bit. But that's okay, kudos to them."
Raiders had four guys go into double figures led by an 18-point game for Shannon Strickland while Paul Greene had 12, Keith Kiner had 11 and Lamar Wilkerson recorded 10 points. As a team, the Raiders struggled from beyond the arc hitting only 36% of their 3-point shots.
Mineral Area (20-4, 8-1 XVI) got out to a 25-14 lead with just under seven minutes to go and the Raiders (14-9, 6-4 XVI) gave up seven unanswered points in a span of about 1:15 to allow the Cardinals to take a 32-14 lead.
From there the Raiders outscored Mineral Area 11-10 to close out the half, but the Cardinals still had the lead, 42-25 at halftime.
Three Rivers tried to get back in the game as they trailed 66-48 with 8:55 to go in the game, but Mineral was able to maintain their lead en route to the win.
Up next for the Raiders, they'll be hosting St. Louis on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
"The Archers are well coached," Bess said. "They run the old triple post triangle that the Chicago Bulls used to run and they run it to perfection."
Mineral and Three Rivers will meet one more time in the regular season as they'll face off at the Libla Family Sports Complex on Feb. 16.
"I know the people in Poplar Bluff will be looking forward to that one," Bess said.
Robert Augsdorfer - Daily American Republic