ST. LOUIS – The Three Rivers Lady Raiders waited too long to shift their game into high gear Wednesday night.

The Lady Raiders trailed by as many as 13 points with three and a half minutes left before rallying to cut the gap to one in the final moments before falling 76-74 to the St. Louis Archers in a Midwest Community Collegiate Athletic Conference contest.

“We cannot wait till the last five minutes to start playing,” Three Rivers coach Jeff Walk said. “We need to make more free throws – 10-for-21 will not cut it. Hopefully we will realize that we must come to play every night.”

Three Rivers (8-11) trailed 68-55 after Kirstie Owen’s 3-pointer with 3:51 to go, but came alive shortly after that as Carolyn Overton scored six straight points to cap a 9-0 spurt and make it a 68-64 game with 2:10 remaining.

Four straight points by Cierra Gaines pushed the Archers’ lead back to 72-64, but a pair of baskets by Brooke Godsey sandwiched around an Abbie Warren trey made it a one-point game with 24 seconds left on the clock.

Shakaunna “Nene” Futrell made three of four free throws to push the St. Louis lead to 75-71 with 15.1 seconds left, but a Candace Miller 3 made it 75-74 with nine seconds to go.

The Lady Raiders still had a chance after Gaines missed one of two free throws with 2.6 seconds left, but could not get a game-tying shot.

The Lady Archers led 29-26 at the half, but slowly built its lead to open the second half, going up 55-44 on Futrell’s basket with 10:01 left in the contest and led by at least seven until Three Rivers made its late run.

Warren and Whitney Mills paced the Lady Raiders with 12 points apiece, while Tazonda Gibbs added 11 and Overton finished with 10.

Gaines led St. Louis with 21 points.

Three Rivers is back in action Saturday when it hosts Moberly in a Region XVI contest. Tipoff is set for 5 p.m.

For more information on everything Raider Athletics, make sure to visit RaidersAthetics.com!