The Missouri-Iowa Challenge is an opportunity for regional junior college men's basketball programs to get a chance at facing top-notch competition early on in the season to set a barometer for the campaign going forward.

The Three Rivers College program has already put its feet to the fire multiple times this young campaign and Friday one could see the Raiders and head coach Brian Bess were all about leaping into the volcano.

The nation's No. 5 team, Indian Hills, invaded Poplar Bluff and the Libla Family Sports Complex to wrap up day one of the two-day event with a date with their Three Rivers host.

It didn't take long for the Raiders (2-3) to learn just how good a top-five team looks and that all added up to a 86-66 loss, the Three Rivers men's third loss in a row.

Indian Hills (5-0) shot 50.7 percent from the field compared to Three Rivers 32.9 and the Warriors made 14 3-pointers to the Raiders two for a margin of 42-6 from beyond the arc.

Hosana Kitenge (15 points, 11 rebounds) and Lamont Jackson (10 points) led the Raiders.

"Boy, they are really good: They were open and couldn't miss and we would be open and couldn't buy a bucket," Three Rivers head coach Brian Bess said. "At halftime we challenged them to play tougher. The scouting report said we couldn't play off of them. They were on fire and came out hot.

"They keyed on (Three Rivers leading scorer Jordan Hamilton). Every time he got the ball, they double-teamed him and they keyed on Hosane and he had a lot of double teams. That's when we need guys to step up and make shots. With time we are going to, but not in our fifth game of the year."

The biggest dilemma early on for the Twin Rivers team was that no matter what they tried to do, Indian Hills had a better counter.

Even on possessions where the Raiders were able to defend near perfectly, they'd surrender a tough-as-nail triple as the shot clock wound down or the extra pass would find that last, best, option for an easy basket.

Offensively, the Raiders were defended by a team that could lock up its man, trap the right spots at the best time and shoot into passing lanes causing havoc on every decision.

It all added up to a 29-10 Indian Hills lead at the nine-minute mark of the first half.

Yet, no one can accuse this Three Rivers squad of being pushovers and they managed to battle to relative equilibrium for the next six minutes behind determined defense while the offense still had to fight off the seeming horde of Indian Hills defenders to trail in the first half's waning minutes.

The Raiders trailed 44-20 at halftime. The guest Warriors rudely treated their host to 56.7 percent shooting including a blistering 8-for-17 from beyond the trifecta line. On the flip side, Three Rivers was held in check to 22.9 percent from the field and went 0-for-12 on three-point attempts, essentially outscored by 24 points on treys over the first 20 minutes.

"Give them credit, but I don't know why we were missing open threes," Bess said. "Maybe we are lacking confidence, but that's something we can improve. It's hard to win when you only have a couple of guys (taking and making shots). But I saw some good things out of a couple of guys so they might be figuring it out maybe."

The lead expanded to 28 points early after the halftime break, but the Raiders will to compete pulsed strongly and a 13-3 run brought them to within 53-35 north of the 13-minute mark.

A Mo Niang triple with 12:20 remaining increased Raiders fans; pulses as suddenly and methodically the Raiders had worked its way into a manageable 53-38 deficit. He followed that up with an offensive, mid-range offensive putback with 11 minutes to go and the Warriors edge was trimmed to 56-43.

From that point on, the Warriors regained a semblance of control and the teams essentially played neck-and-neck to the final whistle, but the margin lain in front of Three Rivers early was too big to overcome.

"We fought - there is no quit in the Raiders," Bess said. "In the first half, we let it steamroll a little bit. I am glad we kept fighting in the second half."

Daily American Republic