Raiders lose for fifth straight time at John A. Logan, 93-77

It was another log afternoon for Chris Carr (11) and Three Rivers, which lost its second in a row after a 5-0 start.

CARTERVILLE, Ill. -- Three Rivers coach Gene Bess has been known to bring his teams in for a Sunday afternoon practice following a bad Saturday night loss.

He didn't wait that long this time.

Upon arriving on campus from last night's 93-77 loss at John A. Logan, the Raiders had exactly 25 minutes to be on the practice floor. It was the second straight loss for Three Rivers following a 5-0 start.

"We haven't given up on them by any stretch of the imagination," Bess said. "We've got to find some things out about this team. We've got to figure out why some of these guys are not competing better."

The Raiders (5-2) didn't compete well in this one.

After taking an early 27-19 lead, Three Rivers saw the Volunteers rattle off a quick 18-2 run en route to a 12-point halftime lead. Logan's advantage steadily grew the rest of the way and Three Rivers never got closer than 12 points.

Combined with Thursday night's loss at No. 4 Southeastern Illinois, the 12th-ranked Raiders have lost back-to-back games for the first time since losing to Logan and Meramec in consecutive contests in November 2001.

"We're not frustrated," guard C.J. Hadley said. "We're going to bounce back from this. We're going to make everybody work harder and we're going to pick each other up."

Dereke Tipler rebounded from a season-low four points with 18 points, five rebounds, six assists and four steals. Hadley added 16 and Danijel Zoric (14) and Chris Carr (11) also finished in double figures.

The Raiders' last four trips to Logan have all been losses.

"It's really nothing that makes it tough, it's just how hard we want to come in and play," Hadley said. "A lot of these freshmen weren't here last year, but I was here. I knew John A. Logan was going to want to beat us because they're trying to set a record for beating us."

The Raiders again struggled offensively, shooting 41.3 percent from the field and going 5-of-24 from 3-point range. They didn't get their first 3-pointer against Logan's 1-2-2 zone defense until Hadley connected midway through the second half.

Three Rivers shot just 17 percent from downtown in its two losses.

"When the 3 doesn't go down, these guys just wilt. It affects them on the other end of the court," Bess said. "We've got guys that will actually fold because they're not shooting the ball well. Instead of playing twice as hard, they play half as hard."

The Volunteers (5-2) had no such shooting troubles, going 8-of-12 from long distance. Logan shot 58.8 percent from the field.

Three Rivers took control early, jumping out to a 23-15 lead when Hadley converted a fastbreak layin 13 minutes in. The advantage stayed at eight points when Zoric took a pass in traffic from Chris Carr and threw down a two-handed dunk.

But Logan immediately responded by hitting three 3-pointers and getting a 3-point play from Cordell Jeanty during a quick 12-0 run. After falling behind by eight, the Volunteers outscored Three Rivers 26-6 to put the Raiders in a halftime hole for the fifth straight game.

"After that timeout, it was like they jinxed something and started playing 10 times harder," Zoric said.

Bess contends there wasn't any magic to Logan's outburst.

"We just kinda quit," he said. "For a period of time we quit in so many words."

Three Rivers cut the deficit to single digits on Carr's putback early in the second half, but the Volunteers scored on three consecutive trips to make it 53-37.

The Raiders used a 1-3-1 halfcourt trap to twice get within 12 points late in the second half, but Logan's Melvin Hall got loose in the corner for open 3s both times to end Three Rivers' comeback bid. Hall was 6-of-8 from downtown for a game-high 31 points.

"I know we can play better defense than that," Hadley said. "We've got to hunt those shooters up. We just didn't hunt them up tonight."