Tournament Central

EVANSVILLE, Ind. - After upsetting No. 12 Southern Indiana on Thursday in the GLVC Tournament quarterfinals, the magic ran out for the Truman men's basketball team as it fell to defending conference champion, Lewis, by a score of 85-75 on Saturday inside the Ford Center.

With the loss, the Bulldogs fall to 22-9 overall, but have hopes of making the NCAA Tournament with an at-large bid when the field is released on Sunday night. On the other side, the Flyers (19-12) have been winners in three straight and will look for back-to-back league titles when they take on top-seeded Bellarmine on Sunday with tip set for 1 p.m. central time. Once again, Truman was led by Cory Myers, who finished with 23 points, three assists, two rebounds, one steal, and a block in 39 of the 40 minutes. Myers more than likely earned himself one of the five spots on the All-Tournament team as he averaged 28.7 points, 3.3 boards, 2.7 dimes, and 1.7 swipes through the Purple and White's three games.

After Myers, three more Bulldogs turned in double-figure efforts including Zach Fischer (16), Connor Erickson (10) and Billy Daniel (10). In 25 minutes of action, Fischer registered his first-career double-double with a personal-best 10 rebounds, while Kyle Kanaskie tied the game high in steals with two.

In the first half, Lewis came out on a roll with 11 of the first 13 points over the course of five and a half minutes before going up by as many as 10, twice (16-6 and 19-9). Truman responded, though, with a 14-6 run of its own to cut the deficit to two, 25-23, with 7:24 to go until the recess. The good guys kept the pressure on and even slimmed the margin to as little as one, 32-31, at the 4:38 mark. However, the Bulldogs could never get the score tied up and headed into the locker room trailing by four, 44-40. Both teams shot over 54 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes including 56.7 percent by Lewis and 54.2 percent by Truman.

In the 10 minutes following the intermission, the Bulldogs continued to scratch and claw never letting the Flyers get ahead by double-digits. With 10:13 to play until the final buzzer, Truman trailed the opposition by just one, 58-57, before the Purple and White rattled off four of the next six points to take their first and only lead of the day, 61-60. With the score knotted up at 63-63, the Flyers stole all of the Bulldogs' momentum and completely changed the game with a 15-0 spurt to take a commanding advantage, 78-63, with just over two and a half minutes to go. After that, the margin was never smaller than seven before the final 10-point difference.

As mentioned above, Truman hopes to earn an at-large bid to the field of 64 in the NCAA Tournament during the selection show on Sunday night beginning at 9:30 p.m. central time. You can watch live by clicking HERE.

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