With one of the most rock-solid defensive performances in several years, the John A. Logan College men’s basketball team put the clamps on the nation’s third-ranked team, Three Rivers, Mo., 79-56, in Carterville Tuesday evening.

With the win, the Volunteers improve to 5-1 overall, while the Raiders fall to 4-1.

“Fifty-six points. We’ll take that every day,” Logan head coach Mark Imhoff said of his team’s defensive effort. “I’ve always been a firm believer that rebounding and defense wins games and that was proved again tonight. We talked with the kids about effort ever since we lost at Vincennes last week. We didn’t have good effort defensively that night and lost. Tonight, we had an outstanding defensive effort. Now it’s just a matter of being consistent with that effort.”

The Vols’ zone defense held the visitors to 31 percent shooting in the first half (7-of-22) and 40 percent for the game. Logan also won the rebounding battle 38 to 31.

The host school led Three Rivers 27-23 at the half. The Vols never let the Raiders take the lead and began building on their advantage in the second half.

Sophomore point guard Lazeric Jones and Kenny Harris paced the offense with 17 points each. Jesse Perry followed with 15. Antwond Roshell was also in double figures with 11. Three Rivers’ All-American candidate, Marquise Carter, was held to nine points.

“We were prepared for this one,” Perry said. “We played hard and everybody stuck together. You could see it in the locker room before the game. We were all pretty hyped. Now, we have to build on this win. But this was a great step forward for our team tonight.”

The Vols return to action at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in Carterville against Mid-Continent University.