David Prater update

By ALEX ABATE

Sports Writer

Three Rivers sophomore David Prater took a hard fall Thursday night against John A. Logan and was taken to Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center before being airlifted to St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau.

Three Rivers coach Gene Bess went to the hospital immediately after the game and made a call Friday morning to learn there is a possibility Prater will be released this afternoon.

"Everything right now looks amazing," Bess said Friday morning. "He won't play for a while."

Prater went down after taking a charge on the defensive side of the floor with 1:11 remaining in the first half. He had a cut on the back of his head and had a seizure under the basket before EMTs arrived.

"They said he had a severe concussion," Three Rivers assistant Brian Bess said Thursday night. "When they got him to the hospital, they were going to run a CAT scan and they (were) going to run all the preliminary tests."

After about a 20-minute delay, the Raiders got off the bench and applauded along with the fans as Prater was taken to the ambulance. Both teams and coaching staffs said a prayer at center court before play was resumed.

"I guess the guy was on the fast break and he just got under him and tried to take a charge and went knee to knee and he fell down and bumped his head," Three Rivers sophomore Marquise Carter said.

The Raiders resolved to get the win for their injured teammate. They did, beating the 23rd-ranked Volunteers, 85-60.

"He took that charge for us, for the team," Carter said. "When we brung it back up to go back out, we just prayed about three or four times and the team came together.

"We all told one another that we wanted to win it for him because we know he would want to win it if he was still out there."