Raiders run wild for win against State Fair

Three Rivers sophomore Ken Bingham dribbles past State Fair's Michael Dorceus in the first half Saturday night at the Bess Activity Center. (Brian Rosener/DAR) [Click to enlarge]

By ALEX ABATE ~ DAR Sports Writer

The Raiders' Region XVI train kept rolling Saturday night at the Bess Activity Center.

Three Rivers had a nine-point lead at half but pulled away with defense and execution for a 77-56 win over State Fair.

"I thought we played extremely well tonight," Raiders coach Gene Bess said. "We just need to build on each one of these (upcoming) games and get better."

The Raiders (20-4) are now 6-0 in the region with home games left against West Plains and Mineral Area.

"It feels good," Raiders sophomore guard Ken Bingham said of the team's region mark. "We just have to keep it up. Everyone is out to beat us."

Marquise Carter was the high scorer for the Raiders with 18 points, while Jeremy Marrs had 15 and Bingham added 13.

Throughout the duration of the second half, the Raiders were aware of the Roadrunners' ability to make a run as they cut a 17-point deficit down to a four-point loss earlier this season.

"We let them make a run on us late, we had them down 30 and I think it ended up (around) 20," Bess said. "We went zone a while just to kind of give them a different look. We pretty well finished our game off which is important this time of year."

State Fair started the second half with a basket to get within seven but then Bingham went off for the Raiders. He made a basket and two free throws followed by a 3-pointer from the right wing at the 17:52 mark. He hit two more free throws and after a State Fair hoop, Marrs scored in the post at the 16:53 mark to give Three Rivers a 44-29 lead.

"We had to come out at half motivated," Bingham said. "The first five minutes always have to be explosive. We just picked it up."

The Raiders cruised to the win with a 44-32 edge over the Roadrunners in the second half.

Bingham had just two points in the first half before netting 11 in the second.

"In the first half, he was kind of off, kind of hesitant of going to the hole because of the shot blocker (Smith)," Carter said. "In the second half, he just kind of got loose and played the way he plays."

Three Rivers went into the half with a 33-24 edge thanks to solid free-throw shooting. With the Raiders up 25-19, Bingham hit two and after a pair from State Fair, Marrs made two and Carter did the same to give Three Rivers a 31-21 lead. A basket from Allan Spencer completed the scoring for the Raiders in the first half.

Midway through the first half, the Raiders had a 16-11 lead and extended it. Carter made a shot at the 8:05 mark to make it 18-11, and after two points from the Roadrunners, Three Rivers went on a 7-2 run to take a 25-15 lead with 5:19 left in the half.

Three Rivers jumped out to a 4-0 lead thanks to a basket from Marrs after and offensive rebound and two free throws from Carter. After State fair tied the game at 4-4, Carter regained the lead for the Raiders with two free throws before Josh Terry gave Three Rivers a 10-4 edge with four straight points. Later in the half, the Raiders went on a 6-0 spurt to go ahead 16-8 with 9:23 remaining.

"We had to come out tough," Bingham said. "We had to take it to the basket, take it to the rim, just do whatever we had to do to start out good."

The Raiders are back in action against Highland at 7 p.m. Monday at the Bess Activity Center, a team they beat twice last season, the second time for a trip to the national tournament.

"We have kind of been hearing about Highland for a while now," Carter said. "We are just looking to look at things that they do and watch a little film from last year on them. Just prepare and practice really hard (Sunday) and see what happens on Monday."

Notes: State Fair had 22 points off turnovers while the Raiders had 18. ... Three Rivers had 16 second-chance points as compared to six for the Roadrunners. ... Three Rivers had 26 bench points in the win, four more than the Roadrunners. ... Marrs finished the game for the Raiders with three blocks. ... State Fair's leading scorer on the season, Dijon Smith, finished with just two points on 1-of-7 shooting in the loss. ... The Raiders had 15 assists in the game as compared to 10 for State Fair.