Tournament Central

KIRKSVILLE, Mo. - The last time Missouri S&T was in town on Jan. 28, the Miners were the ones with smiles on their faces as the final buzzer sounded. Fast forward to Sunday and the Truman men's basketball team wasn't going to let it happen again, not for its final game inside Pershing Arena. The Bulldogs eclipsed the century mark against a GLVC opponent for the first time in just over two years (Saint Joseph's - 2/12/15) and made it look easy against the Miners, 102-83.

With the win, Truman (21-8) captured back-to-back 21-win campaigns giving head coach, Chris Foster, yet another significant milestone. In the 94 years of Truman men's basketball before Foster arrived, the Bulldogs had only won at least 21 games once, and that mark belongs to the 1998-99 NCAA Final Four squad that finished 26-7. In Foster's three years (2014-present), Truman has reached that win total twice. The Bulldogs will now look for No. 22 in the GLVC Tournament quarterfinals on March 2 against 10th-ranked Southern Indiana. Meanwhile, Missouri S&T's 2016-17 season ends with an overall record of 12-14.

Redshirt senior, Cory Myers, made sure the final time he donned the Purple and White in front of the Truman faithful inside Pershing was something they weren't going to forget. Myers racked up a career-high 30 points and shot like he was in the gym by himself. No. 12 went a ridiculous 11-of-13 from the floor including an even more absurd 8-for-10 from behind the arc to go with six rebounds, two assists, one block, and one steal in 36 minutes on the court. Not only did the Ankeny, Iowa native set a new personal best for points, but did so for field goals made, three-pointers made and three-pointers attempted. Those 30 points are the second most by a Bulldog this year behind Jake Velky's 35 at Quincy while his 11 field goals are first and eight triples are tied for the top with Velky at McKendree who also was 8-of-10 in that game.

Behind Myers, four more Bulldogs turned in double-figure efforts including Velky (19), Kyle Kanaskie (15), Connor Erickson (12), and Nikola Pesic (11/ties career high). Altogether, playing their final game inside the friendly confines, the seniors combined for 65 points or just under 64 percent of the offensive output. Zach Fischer made his presence felt with another impressive effort off the bench, this time with six points, a game-high nine boards (ties personal best), a team-high four dimes (ties career high), and no turnovers in 24 minutes. Erickson also dished out four assists, which ties his best ever, and Dwight Sistrunk, Jr. came up with a game-high three swipes.

In the team head-to-head, Truman was outrebounded by one, 35-34. The Bulldogs haven't gotten beaten on the boards and still beat a team that badly since Jan. 7, 2016 when they were outrebounded by McKendree, 39-38, but still won by 22, 84-62. With that being said, rebounds become a little less important when you can shoot it like Truman did. The good guys connected on 55.2 percent (32-for-58) of their shot attempts and shot at least 50 percent in that category for the 16th time this season (13-3 record).

Defensively, the Bulldogs held the Miners to just 41.2 (14-of-34) percent shooting in the first half and on the night, only 37 percent (10-for-27) from distance. Truman splashed home an other worldly 18 of its 30 three-point looks, (60 percent), the most triples it has ever made against a conference opponent and second-most overall to 20 against Central Christian on New Year's Eve. In the record book, with Foster at the helm, the Bulldogs have 12 of the top 24 marks for three-pointers made in a game.

When these two teams last met in late January, Missouri S&T used a fast start to get out ahead of Truman by 10, 28-18. The Bulldogs flipped the script the second time around and led by 10, 24-14, just over six minutes into the contest. Myers set the tone early with 11 of those points, was four of his first four and at one point, cashed in on back-to-back-to-back triples to take Truman from 10 points to 19. The Miners scored eight of the next 10 points to cut the deficit to four, 26-22, but the home team was just getting started. The Bulldogs answered with a 19-4 run of their own over the course of six minutes and 22 seconds to go up by 19, 45-26, and that completely took the wind out of the Miners' sails. The margin was never slimmer than 14 from then until the break and Truman went into the locker room ahead 16, 52-36.

During the first eight minutes of the second period, the hosts outscored their visitors by nine, 21-12, and had their biggest advantage of the day at 25, 73-48. After that, Missouri S&T was never closer than 18 points and the Bulldogs were able to empty their bench before the final 19-point decision.

As mentioned above, Truman has a rematch with No. 10 Southern Indiana set for March 2 in the quarterfinal round at the Ford Center in Evansville, Ind. The Screaming Eagles took the first meeting back on Jan. 12 by a score of 111-89. Tip-off in the field of eight is set for 6 p.m. central time and TrumanBulldogs.com will have all the coverage links ready for you.

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