By DONN ADAMSON/Daily Journal Sports Editor

Published: Sunday, March 06, 2005
Updated: Saturday, March 5, 2005 11:16 PM CST

ROLLA - The two co-champions of the MCCAC, the Mineral Area Cardinals and the Three Rivers Raiders faced off for the third time Saturday, having split their first two meetings, but this time the game had even greater meaning. The winner would advance to a 2-3 contest for the Region championship, and from there could continue on to the national tournament.

Three Rivers took that privilege as they defeated the Cardinals 59-54 on the luck of the bounce. Mineral Area finishes their season at 21-10.

Both teams started out like they had problems with the road trip to the mutual court. After four minutes only a free throw by the Raiders had been recorded. Two minutes later, Curtis Muse made MAC's first basket to make it a 3-2 game. The Raiders took over for the most part going up quickly to a 12-6 lead as the Cardinals continued to miss nearly every shot they attempted.

Late in the half, the Raiders had achieved a 13 points lead at 24-11, but Ryan Byrne hit two three-pointers to give notice that the Cardinals were not dead. The Cardinals closed to within six points at 27-21, but the Raiders finished out the half's scoring to make it 31-21 at the break.

The Cardinals did not take as long to score in the second half. Curtis Muse took a feed from Kenny Burke inside for the first basket of the half, and Tremaine Wilkerson followed with a steal and going the length of the floor for two more. The Raiders were not fazed as they also got their offense rolling to keep the Cardinals at bay.

A putback by Muse off of a Cardinals missed free throw brought the Cardinals to within five points again. The Cardinals would draw to within three before a jam by Three Rivers' Jermaine Dailey stopped a 7-0 run. Mineral Area called time-out to settle down. Three free-throws by the Cardinals made it a two-point game.

Both defenses kept up their stigma on the scoring. At 43-39 in favor of Three Rivers, the scoring stopped for three minutes straight for both teams. Not even free throws or lay-ups would go down for either team.

Byrne would make it a one possession game with two free throws, and Terry Britton would follow with a three to tie the game with less than three minutes left in the game. The Cardinals would give up four straight with C.J. Hadley taking a full-court pass to lay the ball in to make it 50-46 with two minutes left.

Jonathan Jackson made a free throw to make it a one possession game again. The Raiders however took three possessions to score again after crashing the offensive boards and coming up with the offensive board twice, finally scoring on their third try.

The Raiders would pull ahead by four again, but Byrne would hit another three to make it a one-point game with 18 seconds left. Dominitrix Johnson made his eleventh and twelfth free throw of the second half to push the Raiders' lead to three, but it left the Cardinals a chance to tie in the final seconds.

Kenny Burke gave it a great try as his three-point shot hit front rim, bounded high in the air and fell through to the thrill of the Cardinals' fans, but the ball had bounded too high and hit the support above the backboard and was ruled no good. The Raiders finished off the game with two more free throws.

Mineral Area 21 33 - 54

Three Rivers 31 28 - 59

Mineral Area Scoring - R Byrne 13, T Wilkerson 10, K Burke 9, T Britton 7, C Muse 6, J Jackson 5, G Somerville 2, D Chillers 1, A Jackson 1. 3-Pointers - R Byrne 3.