Tournament Central

EVANSVILLE, Ind. - Adversity. A condition marked by misfortune, calamity or distress. It's safe to say the Truman men's basketball team faced plenty of adversity on Thursday night in its GLVC Tournament quarterfinal matchup with No. 12 Southern Indiana. Injuries to two regular starters including the Bulldogs' leading scorer? Check. Severe foul trouble? Check. Getting outrebounded by 24? Check. Playing in the hometown of your opponent at a "neutral" setting? Check. Despite all of these things, Truman won an absolute dogfight and knocked off the Screaming Eagles by a score of 69-68 inside the Ford Center to move on to the semifinals on Saturday.

"We're really proud of our guys and they just gritted it out," said head coach, Chris Foster. "It was a big performance by Cory Myers and we just stuck it out until the end. We tried to get out and pressure more than we normally do and it got us in some foul trouble. I thought it was good for us to get up and really push them off the three-point line. I'm just really proud of our guys for fighting and we get to play another day."

Truman avenged its 22-point loss, 111-89, to then-No. 10 Southern Indiana back in January inside Pershing Arena to improve to 22-8 overall. On the other side, the Screaming Eagles, who had already played inside the Ford Center twice this year and won both games, suffered just their fourth loss of the season and are now 25-4. Those 22 victories are the most for coach Foster in a single season after 20 in 2014-15 and 21 last year. The one-point triumph also marks the first for a Foster-coached squad over Southern Indiana as he was 0-3 against the Screaming Eagles prior to Thursday.

With injuries to two of the regular starters and top three scorers in Nathan Messer (Feb. 4 vs. Saint Joseph's) and Jake Velky (12:11 mark on Thursday), Cory Myers played with an "S" on his chest, much like he has all season. Myers set a new career high for the second game in a row, this time with 33 points on 11-of-21 shooting, including five makes in eight attempts from behind the arc, was 6-for-9 at the free throw line to go with three assists, three steals and two rebounds in all but two of the game's 40 minutes. In his last five outings, the Ankeny, Iowa native is putting up 22.4 points per night while shooting 55.2 percent from the field (37-of-67) and 66.7 percent from deep (24-for-36). Connor Erickson was the next Bulldog in double-figures with 11, all of which came in the second half, and kept his streak of games with at least 10 points alive at nine. He and Billy Daniel shared the team lead in rebounds with four while Zach Fischer registered the squad's lone block.

After giving up 111 points to Southern Indiana in the two teams' first meeting, Truman brought its lunch pail to the arena the second time around. The Screaming Eagles came into this contest as the league's top scoring threat, but managed just 68 points (20+ below season average), 17.6 percent from three-point land (22.9 percent lower than season average), 68.4 percent at the charity stripe (7.5 percent below season average), and 43.4 percent from the floor (5.5 percent worse than season average). Much like just about everyone that played, GLVC Player of the Year, Jeril Taylor, faced foul trouble much of the night and was held to just 13 points after the 50 spot he put up in Kirksville. Averaging 20 points per game this year, Taylor has averaged just 12.6 in his last five games. After 20 minutes on Thursday, the senior had 10 of his 13 but was only 3-of-9 from the field and 0-for-4 from distance.

The one area that Truman really struggled in was rebounding. The Bulldogs managed just 21 boards (fewest since 18 on Nov. 29, 2014 vs. Kentucky Wesleyan) to Southern Indiana's 45 including a deficit of 13, 17-4, on the offensive glass. Because of that, the Screaming Eagles controlled second-chance points to the tune of 15-4 and points in the paint, 30-24. Southern Indiana also had 14 assists to just six from Truman, the Bulldogs' lowest number in that category since Nov. 20, 2012 against Quincy when they had five. Truman made up for those shortcomings by connecting on 46.2 percent of its looks in the second period (12-of-26) and eight of its 17 attempts from behind the arc on the night (47.1 percent).

Through the first half, neither team led by more than four points and there were a combined seven ties along with 11 lead changes. The only time either squad was able to put together a run of more than four points together was when Truman rattled off six straight to go ahead by two, 25-23, at the 4:04 mark thanks to triples from Nikola Pesic and Myers. The Bulldogs and Screaming Eagles set the tone defensively and combined to shoot just 35 percent (20-for-57) in those 20 minutes. Truman's biggest lead was three (31-28 and 33-30 at half), while Southern Indiana's was four (20-16 and 23-19).

At the end of the first half and just under three minutes into the second, the good guys put together a 16-4 run to take their biggest advantage of the night at 11, 41-30. However, the hometown team proceeded to score 15 of the next 19 points and it was deadlocked for an eighth time, 45-45. A little bit later, the Bulldogs led by two, 49-47, but wouldn't see another lead until five more ties had come and gone and there was only 1:30 remaining. At that point, Myers had cashed in on a three-point play and Truman was back ahead by one, 65-64.

Southern Indiana then converted three of its next four free throw attempts including 1-of-2 from Alex Stein (91.4 percent this season) and two more from Taylor to regain a two-point lead, 67-65, with 41 seconds left. At the 25-second mark, Myers made 1-of-2 from the charity stripe to cut it to one, 67-66, before Taylor was fouled and converted on just one of his two free throw attempts. At that point, the Screaming Eagles led by two, 68-66, and Myers missed a layup attempt to tie it with 13 seconds remaining. Erickson fouled Cortez Macklin (52.1 percent free throw shooter) who missed both and Truman had the opportunity to tie or take the lead. Who else but Myers did the honors with another three-point play. Stein had one last look at a three from the top of the key, but it rimmed out, and the Bulldogs had pulled it off.

Truman will play seventh-seeded Lewis on Saturday in its first conference tournament semifinal since 2007 when it was a member of the MIAA. Tip-off is set for 2:30 p.m. against the Flyers, who beat the Bulldogs earlier this season in Romeoville, Ill., 94-73. In the game after Truman's on Thursday, Lewis upset the two seed, Quincy, 79-78, to advance.

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