ST. LOUIS - Leading UMSL on the road by seven, 67-60, with just 1:14 remaining in the game, the Truman men's basketball team might have packed up shop a little too early. The Tritons ended regulation on an 8-1 run to send it into overtime before after they scored first in the extra period. However, the Bulldogs took the lead back and never trailed again en route to the four-point victory inside the Mark Twain Building.

With its third win in a row, Truman improves to 15-4 overall and 7-2 in the GLVC while Missouri-St. Louis has fallen in six of its last seven to drop to 9-10 on the season and 3-6 in league play. Jake Velky paced the Bulldogs with a team-high 23 points, 10 of which came in overtime, on 6-of-11 shooting from behind the arc and a 5-for-8 performance from the free throw line. The Waverly, Iowa native also turned in four assists, three rebounds and one steal in a game-high 41 minutes played. In the added five minutes, Velky was 2-of-2 from deep and 4-for-6 at the charity stripe.

Cory Myers sealed what seems like a certain GLVC Player of the Week nod with 18 points, six swipes, five dimes, three boards, one block, and only one turnover. For the week, the former Ankeny Hawk averaged 21.5 points, 7.5 assists, 7.0 rebounds, 3.0 steals, and just 2.5 turnovers per contest. Connor Erickson and Nathan Messer were the final two Truman players with at least 10 points thanks to 15 each while Dwight Sistrunk, Jr. tallied a team-high seven boards. Off the bench, Billy Daniel was good for 16 hustle minutes, six points and three rebounds.

Likely the main reason the Bulldogs were able to win this game was due to the Tritons' carelessness with the ball. Missouri-St. Louis gave the ball away 22 times to just 11 by Truman and those 22 turnovers turned into 27 points for the Bulldogs (27-8). UMSL's assist-to-turnover ratio for the year is now at 276-to-287 and the Tritons' 287 giveaways are second-most in the conference. The Purple and White forced nine of those 22 with steals, their most in that category since they had 10 against Central Christian New Year's Eve (five games).

With that being said, the hosts controlled the momentum in bench scoring (40-11), points in the paint (34-26) and rebounds (41-35). Truman was held to just 44.6 percent (29-of-65) shooting from the floor, its worst effort in a win since the Benedict game on Dec. 16 when it shot 37.9 percent (25-for-66). UMSL came into this game with the third-best scoring defense in the GLVC (68.9), but Truman gave the Tritons some of their own medicine in the first half. Missouri-St. Louis was held to just 35.7 percent shooting in those 20 minutes.

In the first half, Truman led throughout, but that doesn't mean it was an easy 20 minutes for the good guys. Early on, the Bulldogs led by as many as 10, 18-8, but the Tritons scored 12 of the next 15 points to pull within one, 21-20, with 4:26 to go until halftime. The visitors weathered the storm, though, and headed into the intermission with a three-point advantage, 30-27. Erickson was the leader in the clubhouse with eight points, three rebounds, one assist, and one steal.

Out of the break, Missouri-St. Louis clawed back and was able to take its first of two leads on the night when it was ahead by one, 38-37. But, as Truman has done so many times in the second half this season, it used a 22-8 run to take its biggest lead of 13, 59-46. A big reason for that success was the departure of UMSL's leading scorer, Hunter Reine, leaving the game with four fouls at the 16:28 mark after Daniel was the aggressor and took it at him. Reine would be saddled with foul trouble for over eight minutes before coming back in with 8:27 to go.

The Tritons continued to hang around as they rattled off a 22-9 spurt that knotted the game up at 68-68 and sent the Bulldogs to overtime for the second time this year (2-0). In those five minutes, Missouri-St. Louis was first on the board with a Hunter Reine hook and Truman took it from there, but didn't make it easy. In the 22-9 run for the Tritons plus the extra period, the Bulldogs were just 10-of-17 from the free throw line and were 15-for-25 overall.

Next up, Truman comes home to play four straight beginning with Drury on Thursday and tip is set for 7:30 p.m.

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