The Three Rivers College men's basketball team entered this week needing to "take care of business" by earning a pair of home wins to lock up the No. 2 seed in next week's Region XVI Tournament.
And after the Raiders picked up a 63-40 win over the State Fair Roadrunners on Wednesday at the Libla Family Sports Complex, they've done just that. Regardless of the outcome of Saturday's game at Mineral Area College, TRC is locked into the second seed and a rematch with MAC in the region semifinals next Thursday.
But despite the 23-point margin of victory on Wednesday, Three Rivers coach Robert Kirby said the Roadrunners made his squad earn the win.
"First off, State fair is a heck of a ball club," Kirby said. "They really do a great job of defending. They made it tough on us all night long to score. We managed to get some buckets, but it was a dog fight all the way through. Our guys happened to make some timely shots, to stretch the lead out a little bit and did a good job of rebounding ball. But it was a tough ball game — tough ball game."
State Fair's Mosa Osagie sank a pair of free throws with 14:03 left in the first half to tie the score at 8-8 and trailed just 14-10 after a Sam Bradford putback with 10:33 remaining before the intermission, but the Raiders scored 14 straight points and took a 28-10 on Robert Alexander's layup with 4:42 left before halftime.
"We wanted to make sure we established how the game was going to be played early," Kirby said. "And I thought I our guys grew up a little bit in the last ball game, and they took it to another level tonight in physical play, effort, getting to the right spots and communicating all the little things that make you a great team. I thought we did a good job of doing that tonight."
Matt Hampton led Three Rivers with 20 points, while Meechie White added 15 and Alexander finished with eight. Sikou Diagouraga added seven rebounds, two steals and blocked two shots, while Ali Oralkan also blocked a pair of shots. Marial Malek led TRC with five steals, while Alexander had three and the duo of White and Oralkan had two apiece.
The Raiders wrap up the regular season on Saturday at Mineral Area seeking their first win of the season against the Cardinals — and the first win over MAC on its home floor in six years. Tipoff time at Bob Sechrest Fieldhouse in Park Hills is slated for 7 p.m.
"We started off both games (strong) with those guys and did a great job early in the game, but in the latter part of the game just let it slip away," Kirby said. "And MAC is a great team, very well-coached. They do a good job of running what they run. We've just got to do a better job of taking away some things and taking care of the ball at key points in the game. We're looking forward to the matchup."
Mike Buhler - Daily American Republic