Men's Basketball 11/1/2015 7:31:00 PM Tyler Madsen, Athletics Communications

Men's Basketball opens exhibition season at UNI

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa - - Senior Andrew Vander Zwaag and junior Connor Erickson tied for a team-high 12 points, as the Truman men's basketball team opened the 2015-16 with a 70-50 exhibition road loss at NCAA Div. I Northern Iowa on Sunday night.

The Bulldogs, who are coming off a 20-10 season and a trip to the Great Lakes Valley Conference tournament quarterfinals a season ago, battled one of the best teams in Div. I in Sunday night's exhibition, as UNI posted a 31-4 record a season ago en route to a Missouri Valley Conference title and a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Div. I basketball tournament. Truman head coach Chris Foster graduated from UNI in 2005 and still ranks No. 6 on UNI's all-time assists chart with 370 while also scoring 1,027 points in a Panther uniform.

On Sunday night, Truman led briefly early in the first half and played tight with the Panthers until a late run pushed UNI's lead to 13, 36-23, at the half. The Bulldogs shot just 27.6% in the opening half, but bounced back for a 34.6% clip in the second half to finish the game at 17-for-55 (30.9%) overall. Truman hit seven-of-27 three-point attempts (25.9%) and was 9-of-10 (90%) from the foul line on the night.

Vander Zwaag hit four of Truman's seven triples for 12 points in 24 minutes of action, while Erickson hit 6-of-11 from the floor to go with a team-high four steals in his 20 minutes of play. Junior guard Kyle Kanaskie added nine points and a team-best four assists, and redshirt freshman Nikola Pesic scored five points off the bench.

The Bulldogs forced 21 UNI turnovers; however, the Panthers turned 19 Bulldog miscues into 18 points, while Truman used the Panther mistakes to a tune of just 13 points. Matt Bohannon led UNI with 15 points, while Wes Washpun added nine points and 10 assists.

Truman, who played its only scheduled exhibition game on Sunday night, will hit the floor for the first regular season contest on Friday, November 13, in St. Louis when it faces Trevecca Nazarene (Tenn.) as part of the season-opening Midwest Region Challenge, hosted by Maryville University.

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Players Mentioned

#32 Connor Erickson: F; 6' 8"; Redshirt Junior

#22 Kyle Kanaskie: G; 5' 11"; Junior

#01 Nikola Pesic: G/F; 6' 5"; Redshirt Freshman

#30 Andrew Vander Zwaag: G; 6' 3"; Redshirt Senior

Players Mentioned

#32 Connor Erickson
: 6' 8"; Redshirt Junior
: F

#22 Kyle Kanaskie
: 5' 11"; Junior
: G

#01 Nikola Pesic
: 6' 5"; Redshirt Freshman
: G/F

#30 Andrew Vander Zwaag
: 6' 3"; Redshirt Senior
: G