It is the story about the rebound that got away.

Despite playing the entire second half without leading scorer Jordan Hamilton and trailing 40-33 at the break, the Three Rivers Raiders found a way to put themselves in winning position Saturday night in the final game of the 2022 1st Midwest JUCO Tournament of Champions at the Libla Family Sports Complex.

Unfortunately, up three, the Raiders (2-1) failed to secure the winning rebound at John A. Logan's Elijah Jones' heave landed true at the bottom of the net at the buzzer and the visiting Vols would escape Poplar Bluff with a 99-95 double overtime win.

Hosana Kitenge (20 points, 12 rebounds), Mo Niang (20 points, seven rebounds), B.J. Francis (16 points), Lamont Jackson (14 points) and Jordan Hamilton (11 points) led the Raiders who shot 41.7 percent in defeat while committing only 16 turnovers over 50 minutes.

Kitenge and Niang were named to the All-Tournament team.

"Maybe we should have fouled up three," Three Rivers head coach Brian Bess said about the late sequence that led to the overtime route. "We competed and we should have pulled it out. At halftime, when it rains it pours."

Bess said Hamilton may have been subject to being caught reacting to a Vol action, thus ending the freshman's night early after receiving a technical earlier in the contest.

"We kept battling and kept competing," Bess said. "We had an eight-point lead at one time. If we could have gotten a stop then, the game is over."

The Vols came out with an early lead in overtime, but Jackson hit a floater and ripped a defensive rebound out of a John A. Logan player's grasp and that would lead to two Francis free throws to put the Raiders back on top.

Again the Vols found some mojo and got themselves back up 85-81 with 90 seconds left in the first extra session, but Kitenge's two free throws and the Raiders defense led to a Three Rivers possession that ended with a Francis power move through the paint to tie the game with 28.7 seconds left.

John A. Logan ran the clock down for a winner, but the shot was ineffectual and the inbounds catch-and-toss was errant at the buzzer to send the teams to the second overtime knotted at 85-all.

The teams scrapped back-and-forth early on and an inexcusable foul on a Niang trey attempt led the Raider to bury all three free throws to slash the Vols lead to 90-88.

The deficit would be 93-91 and then the Vols were able to hold on tight to get out with a win by the skin of a loose rebound.

"It's very eye-opening for us: We now know we can compete with a Top-10 (type) team in the nation and we believe we are one of the best teams in the nation," Kitenge said. "Losing a top-10 player like Jordan really hurt us, but it tells a lot about our team and our composure and maturity and take a team predicted way above us in the preseason rankings to double overtime.

"It's part of the game - you win some and lose some."

The game started pretty hotly contested as both teams came out firing from outside with the visiting Vols getting the better edge of it taking a 14 to 9 lead thanks to a couple of turnovers by The Host to help John a Logan cause.

The two teams remained at equilibrium for the next five minutes as John A. Logan led 20-16 just south of the 10-minute mark of the first half as they did not allow Three Rivers to have many good looks inside the lane and the Raiders had to settle for a bevy of three-point shots.

The strategy worked for a while and John A Logan built a 12-point lead keeping Three Rivers from many good looks at the cylinder. However, slowly but surely the Raiders finally found their way closer to the rim using back door cuts and a few more aggressive moves In transition to cut the deficit to four before settling for a 40-33 halftime deficit.

Then the Raiders were dealt the blow at halftime with Hamilton given a second technical for some unruly behavior that sent him to the showers for the remainder of the game.

"At halftime, Jordan is one of my best friends, and I told him that today he disappointed us," Kitenge said. "He let us down, but I've done the same and other players on the roster have done the same. However, it's next man up. We all put our shoes and socks on the same way and we fear no man. I've got to credit all the guys who stepped up and played more minutes than they normally play."

The Raiders were held to 39.3 percent shooting overall including a mere 2-for-9 from beyond the land of the three in the first half.

In the early stages of the second half, Three Rivers crawled within 46-43 just over four minutes in, when Jackson buried a three-pointer to pull the host within one possession.

After some slow rolling on the scoreboard, the Raiders forged a 49-all tie on a follow-up by Niang in transition at the 11:13 mark of regulation.

Niang got the Raiders over the climb with two free throws a minute later for a 53-51 lead for his side.

It took a while but Three Rivers was back in the lead and momentum was wearing black and yellow.

A Jackson steal and dunk, following a Kitenge sweet spin to the rim, elevated the Raiders into an 8-point lead, but the Vols would not cave and benefited from a couple of easier possessions that helped them edge back into the contest.

"Maybe we will learn and grow and figure out what we could have done differently," Bess said. "They were very athletic and a transition team. I thought we were able to grind it and make them work, but they had those two buckets in transition going downhill on us."

Ultimately, despite Three Rivers best efforts John A Logan ended up tying the game of 67 at the 2:15 mark.

Then the Raiders found themselves up 74-69, but the seesaw nature of this game took hold and the Vols pulled within 74-73 and fell behind 76-73 on two Francis free throws with 12.7 seconds left.

That's when the apparent missed tying attempt was given new life on the tapped-out rebound that led to Jones' hope for best wishes coming true and the fans would get 10 minutes of free basketball.

Alan Dale - Daily American Republic