With just a few minutes remaining in Thursday's home game against the East Mississippi Community College Lions, Three Rivers sophomore Tristin Fleming came down court for a slam dunk, which concluded the game on an 11-0, en route to a 88-72 victory, for the Raiders second consecutive win, and sixth overall.

"It took everybody," Fleming said. "It took the whole team. We came out and played hard, played defense, stayed in our gaps, and just stuck to the defensive plan. That's where we've been messing up, and that's how we've lost a couple of our games. This game we focused on that, and we came out and executed it."

The first shot of the game came from Lions freshman Jordan Alexander giving his team an early 2-0 lead, but Fleming was able to tie it when he was sent to the line, knocking down two free throws to tie the game up.

Following Fleming's free throws, both teams got locked into a back-and-forth affair, until Raiders freshman Drew Ward was able to knock down back-to-back 3-point shots, giving the Raiders a 24-19 lead.

"He stepped up, and knocked down some big 3's for us," said Raiders head coach Robert Kirby of Ward. "He's really good when he plays with confidence and a lot of poise. He's tough to guard because he can put it on the deck, he can really see the floor, and he's a dangerous 3-point shooter."

The Lions however continued to fight back and keep themselves within striking distance until the Raiders offense got going again with multiple shots from sophomore Antonio Williams, who came away with a rebound which led to a layup, after teammate Myles Jones missed a 3-point attempt.

"When Antonio is doing his job from the standpoint of he's playing really aggressive on the glass and spreading the floor, blocking shots, and rebounding, we are a different team," Kirby said. "He takes us to a different level because he's hard to guard from the standpoint of he's super athletic and he's got really good speed. When he uses that to his advantage, it's hard to matchup with him."

Sophomore Raider Johann Pautsch was able to knock down the final shot of the first half on a buzzer beater giving the Raiders a 43-33 heading into the locker room at halftime.

"In the second half we came out, and like the first half, we needed to stick to the defensive plan and come out and play hard because we know we have to score," Fleming said. "In the second half, we came out and go stops even though we started to turn the ball over a little bit, and that allowed them to get some momentum. I feel like we got the momentum back and kept it until the end of the game."

In the second half, the first point was dropped on a free throw by Lions sophomore Diovion Famakinde, which led to an 8-0 Lions run before Fleming was able to put a temporary stop to the Lions run with a layup, putting his team back up by four points.

Soon after, teammate Matt Hampton came away with a slam dunk, followed by a layup, which resulted in Williams coming away with a 3-point play, along with another layup from Fleming as the Raiders got back to a double-digit lead.

Both teams continued to go back-and-forth once again until Famakinde threw up a pass to Ace McKinnie, which led to an alley-oop, forcing a timeout from Kirby with just under five minutes remaining in regulation with the Raiders leading by 10.

"We had changed up our press-break a little bit," Fleming said. "He [Kirby] told us to be strong with the ball. We had to make the right passes, and that's what we did."

When play resumed, the Raiders offense got going again when Hampton came away with another slam dunk, followed by a layup from Fleming, which later transitioned into a dunk by Fleming getting the crowd on its feet.

Fleming was able to knock down the final two shots of the game on free throws as the Raiders won by 16. They will return to action Friday at home at 7 p.m against Northeastern Oklahoma A&M, who is coming off a 70-58 win Thursday night against Wabash College.

"We got this win, but we've got to put it behind us," Fleming said. "Tomorrow we have to get another win, and then on Saturday we've got to get that win. Every day is a new day and we need to come in with a new mindset and play hard."

Alex Martin - Daily American Republic