KIRKSVILLE, Mo. - Much like the game against then-No. 9 Bellarmine on Jan. 13, the Truman men's basketball team faced a 19-point deficit against Missouri S&T on Saturday afternoon inside Pershing Arena. Trailing the Miners 60-41 with just over 15 minutes to play in the game, the Bulldogs rattled off a 25-6 run to knot it up at 66-66, but it was too little, too late as the home team was never able to take the lead and fell by five, 96-91.

The loss snaps Truman's four-game winning streak and six in a row against Missouri S&T. The Bulldogs now sit at 16-5 overall, 8-3 in the GLVC and are tied with Quincy for first place in the West. Meanwhile, Missouri S&T has won two of its last three to improve to 9-9 on the season and 3-8 in league play. Jake Velky led all scorers with 24 points on 8-of-17 (tied career high for field goal attempts/three-pointers attempted) shooting from the field including seven three-pointers to go with five rebounds and two steals. Dwight Sistrunk, Jr. was next with 19 points (Truman high), 17 of which came in the second half, on a perfect nine makes (tied personal best) in nine attempts from the floor. Sistrunk Jr. was one assist shy of a double-double with four boards and three swipes. The Bulldogs suffered their first loss of the year when Sistrunk Jr. and Cory Myers combine for nine or more dimes (9-1).

Joining Velky and Sistrunk Jr. in the double-figure scoring department were Myers with 13 and Nikola Pesic with 10 (tied career high), all of which were in the second period. Connor Erickson paced Truman in rebounds and blocks with six and two, respectively, while off the bench, Zach Fischer had nine points, three boards and one assist in 19 minutes of action. Two days after scoring 23 points thanks in part to seven triples, Nathan Messer was tied up for just five points on 2-for-10 shooting, 1-of-8 from behind the arc. The Bulldogs came into this game shooting 44.8 percent from distance (first in the nation), but were held to just 37.1 percent (13-for-35) by the Miners.

Missouri S&T dominated the glass to the tune of 48-31 and proved why it's the best offensive rebounding team in the GLVC. The Miners had 17 offensive boards (13.6 per game this season) to the Bulldogs' 10 and led on the defensive glass by 10, 31-21. Missouri S&T's bench outscored Truman's 43-26 while the good guys had the upper hand in points in the paint, 40-28. The home team was held to just 42 percent (13-for-31) shooting in the first 20 minutes while the visitors managed to shoot over 45 percent both halves. The Miners can thank the free throw line for the win where they were 29-of-38 and the Bulldogs went to the charity stripe only 11 times (6-for-11).

In the first three minutes and change, there were two ties and three lead changes with Truman's final lead of the game coming at the 18:08 mark, 5-4. The next seven minutes and six seconds, Missouri S&T used a 20-10 spurt to go up by 10, 28-18, with 9:05 on the clock. After the Bulldogs got within three, 29-26, with an 8-1 run (two Velky treys/Messer jumper), the Miners scored 18 of the next 26 points to head into the locker room up 13, 47-34.

Out of the intermission, the away team outscored its hosts 13-7 and was up by 19, 60-41. Then came the 25-6 run for Truman, but Missouri S&T answered with six points in a row and didn't look back. Truman slimmed the margin to one on a couple occasions (72-71 and 74-73), but the Miners made 18 of their 22 free throw attempts down the stretch to hold on for the five-point decision.

Next up, the Bulldogs will continue this four-game homestand with Indianapolis on Thursday, Feb. 2 with tip against the Greyhounds set for 7:30 p.m.

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