JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Truman men's basketball led Lincoln by 13, 70-57, on the road Saturday night with just under five minutes to play and withstood a 12-0 run by the Blue Tigers to hold on for the one-point victory, 72-71. Jake Velky (pictured) halted the spurt with a pair of free throws that gave him a career high 26 points and put the Bulldogs up three before it was too little, too late by the home team.

With the win, Truman pushed its winning streak to three and improved to 5-1 while Lincoln fell to 4-2 on the young season. Velky topped his previous personal best of 24 points, has had at least 15 in five of the team's six games this year and is first on the squad in points per game with 17.5. Against the Blue Tigers, the sophomore guard was 8-of-11 from the floor including 6-for-7 from deep as well as perfect in four attempts from the charity stripe. Dwight Sistrunk, Jr. was also in double-figures for the second time this year with 10 to go with a game high seven assists, Connor Erickson was first in rebounds with seven and Cory Myers secured three steals on the defensive end.

Out of the gate, Lincoln led 4-0 before six ties and five lead changes over the course of the first half. Twice, the Blue Tigers biggest lead was four (17-13) while the Bulldogs' biggest advantage came at the 5:33 mark when it was seven, 32-25. After that seven-point margin, the home team headed into the locker room on a 13-5 run and was up by one, 38-37, at the intermission. At that point, Velky had poured in 14 while Sistrunk Jr. and Nathan Messer were each responsible for six.

The visitors opened the second half by scoring 11 of a possible 12 points to go up nine, 48-39. During that opening stretch, Velky had five points and Erickson notched four of his nine. Lincoln continued to battle, though, and thanks to an 11-5 run, had shrunk the margin to three, 53-50. However, Truman stood tall, scored 17 of the next 24 points and had its biggest lead of the game at 13, 70-57. Then came the Blue Tigers' 12-0 spurt to make it 70-69 before Velky took care of business at the free throw line and despite a layup from Lincoln with 30 seconds left, the Bulldogs had held on for the victory. That Blue Tiger deuce came from Anthony Virdure who had a game high 28 points to go with four rebounds, two assists and two steals.

In the team head-to-head, Truman had the advantage in bench points (13-8), rebounds (33-27), assists (12-8), field goal percentage (47.3-45.5), three-point field goal percentage (50-29.4), and free throw percentage (83.3-66.7).

Next up, the Bulldogs will begin GLVC play at Rockhurst on Thursday (7:30 p.m.) and at William Jewell the following Saturday (3 p.m.).