Raiders ride defense to win at State Fair

SEDALIA — One of the best-known clichés in sports says that defense wins championships. If that's so, the Three Rivers College men's basketball team was in championship form Wednesday night.

The Raiders held the State Fair Roadrunners to just one field goal in the first 12 minutes of Wednesday's Region XVI contest, setting the tempo for a 53-38 win at the Fred E. Davis Multipurpose Center.

With the win, Three Rivers improves to 15-8 on the season — surpassing last season's win total of 14 games — and also improves to 5-2 in Region XVI play. The Raiders are 1 1/2 games behind first-place Moberly in the Region XVI standings and two games ahead of Mineral Area.

State Fair falls to 16-8 on the season and 2-5 in Region XVI play.

TRC held the Roadrunners to less than 25% shooting from the field (14-for-57) and also held them in check even more behind the arc as the hosts were 2-for-20 from downtown.

Even more astounding was the Raiders' dominance on the boards. For the third game in a row, Three Rivers held a 25-plus rebound edge on the glass and pulled down 47 rebounds Wednesday.

Five Raiders had five or more rebounds, led by 10 from Robert Alexander, while Matt Hampton added nine, Antonio Williams and Meechie White had seven apiece had seven and Ali Oralkan finished with five.

Three Rivers set the pace early, taking a 19-4 lead on Alexander's putback with 10:44 left in the first half. Meanwhile, the Roadrunners did not get their second basket of the game until Chin Hanson scored with 7:51 left before the intermission to make it a 19-6 game.

The Raiders continued to dominate on the defensive end as they limited State Fair to just five first-half field goals (5-for-30, 17%), arguably the team's best defensive half of the year.

Three Rivers won by 15 points in spite of its own struggles on the offensive end, shooting 35% from the field (19-for-54) and committing 23 turnovers.

Hampton led the offense with 10 points, while Williams added nine, Ethan Johnson had eight, Alexander contributed seven, Johann Pautsch had six and Oralkan finished with five.

Hanson and Bradford paced the Roadrunners with nine points apiece, while Alex Gunnels had eight and Donta Davis finished with six.

The Raiders are back in action Saturday when they host Mineral Area in a Region XVI contest. Tipoff at the Libla Family Sports Complex is set for 7 p.m.