Defense propels Raiders to easy victory

Monday, November 3, 2003
C.J. Hadley throws down a slam dunk.

POPLAR BLUFF -- Only a few months into his Three Rivers career, Tony Webb already understands priority No. 1. It's the same as priorities 2 and 3.

"When you have a coach like coach (Gene) Bess, you can't stress defense enough," Webb said after the 12th-ranked Raiders routed Kaskaskia, Ill., 84-50 Sunday afternoon to conclude the First Midwest Bank JUCO Tournament of Champions. "It's just defense, defense, defense and the offense will take care of itself. I think that man goes home and dreams about defense. When somebody sticks defense in your mind 1,000 times a day, you've got to play it."

The Raiders (2-0) did, smothering Kaskaskia with a stingy defensive effort. Three Rivers held the Devils to just 15 first-half points -- including four over the final 12 minutes -- en route to a big halftime lead.

Kaskaskia shot 25 percent from the field in the first half and committed 26 turnovers for the game.

The Devils, who put a scare into preseason Region XVI favorite Mineral Area Saturday night, never threatened Three Rivers. Kaskaskia didn't score its 20th point until the 15-minute mark of the second half.

"I thought our kids came to play and took it at them. We picked up full court and took the momentum away from them real quick," Bess said. "Last night Kaskaskia looked close to the best team in this tournament, but boy, we sure did get them out of everything they wanted to do today. That's a credit to our players."

The Raiders, who beat Lincoln, Ill., 69-61 Saturday, needed the fast start. Beginning with Saturday's game at Olney Central, four of their next five games are on the road against tough Illinois teams.

"It's good to start off with two wins, but we're not going to get happy about it because there's going to be wins all through the season," freshman Nick Covington said.

Redshirt freshman C.J. Hadley hit three 3-pointers and finished with a game-high 17 points. Tony Webb chipped in 15 points in his first career start and Covington added 13 points and six assists off the bench.

Three Rivers shot 49.3 percent from the field, including a 10-of-20 effort from downtown. All 11 available players scored and played at least 10 minutes.

With Dereke Tipler still nursing tendonitis in his left knee and Ceso Sprewell gone, Webb and Covington have assumed their defensive roles at the point. Those two forced Kaskaskia point guard Trey Williams into five turnovers and held him to 3-of-14 shooting.

"They let us know that Ceso and Dereke were good defenders last year, and me and Nick took that to heart," Webb said. "We want to be like them. We said to ourselves that we're going to be good defensive players just like they were last year."

Covington, who started on Saturday, had three of the Raiders' 10 steals.

"We've got to go out there and set the tone because everything starts with the point guard," Covington said. "We're going to lead it off and they're going to follow us."

Three Rivers' defense led to a scoring spree that broke the game open. With Three Rivers leading 14-11, Covington buried the first of two first-half 3-pointers. Hadley connected from downtown on the next possession, then came up with a steal and converted it into an easy basket to make it 22-11.

After a Kaskaskia basket, Covington knocked down another 3 and Derrell Minner banked in a reverse layup on a high-low pass from center Danijel Zoric. One possession later, Chris Carr slammed home an alley-oop on an inbound play under the basket to make it 30-13.

Following two Kaskaskia free throws, Webb converted a runner in the lane and Zoric had an offensive stickback as the half ended with the Raiders scoring nine unanswered points to make it 39-15. Three Rivers, switching from a full-court press to man-to-man throughout the half, outscored the Devils 25-4 during the final 12 minutes of the first half.

"They really gave in when we applied that pressure," Hadley said. "A lot of teams give in like that."

The lead reached 30 on Hadley's steal and transition score early in the second half and the Raiders were ahead 69-39 on Leonard Bishop Jr's 3-pointer with 9:25 to go. Minner had eight points and seven rebounds for the Raiders, whose bench outscored Kaskaskia 33-12.

Covington was 3-of-4 from downtown.

NOTES: Carr, Hadley and Webb were named to the all-tournament team. They were joined by Kaskaskia's Jake Bayers, who had 16 points against the Raiders, Mineral Area's Lorenzo Gordon and Jeff Carlson of Lincoln. ...Mineral Area beat Lincoln 72-59 in the earlier game.

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