PARK HILLS — The Wabash Valley Warriors made the Three Rivers College men's basketball team pay for its habit of slow starts.
Wabash Valley sprinted out to a 10-point lead less than five minutes into Saturday's contest and never trailed again to hand a Raiders a 68-60 loss to open the second day of the Bob Sechrest Classic on the campus of Mineral Area College.
"(Wabash Valley) took a 40-point thumping (Friday) night and they had a little more energy to redeem themselves," Kirby said. "And we came out just flat and just not really moving like we're capable of. We weren't necessarily playing together the whole time — we were being impatient with some things. …
"At the end of the day, we're good enough to be better than what we are right now, but it's a process we're going through — a growth process of understanding how you have to approach each game and playing together as one unit."
Michael Dempsey's free throws with 15:06 left in the first half staked the Warriors (3-2) to a 14-4 lead — and unlike past games against Triton, John A. Logan and Gulf Coast State, Three Rivers never could dig out of that early hole.
Jesiah Sloss's free throws with 6:12 left before halftime staked Wabash Valley to a 24-13 lead, but the Raiders answered back with an 8-2 run, cutting the Warriors' lead to 26-21 on Kaleb Williams's 3-pointer with 3:58 left before the intermission.
But that was as close as Three Rivers got on Saturday, thanks in part to cold first-half shooting — the Raiders missed 13 of their 19 shot attempts in the first half and were just 10-for-16 from the free-throw line in the opening 20 minutes.
"We had dead legs the first part of the game and (we were) trying to catch up," Kirby said. "Matt (Hampton) picked up a bone bruise in the game (Friday) night, so he wasn't moving as swift as he normally is. A couple of our other guys have got some bumps and bruises as well, so we were just not as sharp as we normally are."
Wabash Valley pushed its lead back into double digits when Mohamed Diaby's 44 seconds into the second half made it a 33-23 game — and the Warriors held an 8-12 point lead most of the second half from that point on.
Josiah Cotto's 3-pointer with 7:37 to go cut the Wabash Valley lead to 49-42 and a Johann Pautsch free throw with 6:12 to go made it a 51-45 game. However, the Warriors scored the next six points to go ahead 57-45 on Taj Ford's basket with less than five minutes to go.
Three Rivers did not give up, cutting the lead to 62-55 on a Davin Francis triple with 1:07 left, but came no closer than six points in the final 67 seconds.
Matt Hampton paced the Raiders with 17 points, while Antonio Williams added 10, Pautsch had nine and Francis finished with eight. Pautsch also had seven rebounds, while he, Hampton and Myles Jones each added a pair of steals. Sikou Diagouraga blocked four shots in Saturday's contest, while Antonio Williams blocked a pair.
Nazier Leonard led Wabash Valley with 16 points, while Cameron Marks added 12 and the trio of Diaby, Ford and Khore Furlow each finished with nine. Ford and Leonard each had three steals, while Jamier Nowell and DeMario Spear had two steals apiece.
After playing five road games in nine days, the Raiders have a week off before coming home next Saturday to take on Southern Arkansas University Tech. Tipoff time for that contest is 4 p.m. at the Libla Family Sports Complex.
Mike Buhler - Daily American Republic