MARYVILLE, Mo. - There's never a good night to shoot poorly, but Friday against Upper Iowa might have been the worst to do it for the Truman State University men's basketball team. The Bulldogs made just six of their first 20 field goal attempts and trailed by as many as 20 in the first half to a Peacock squad that cashed in on nearly 60 percent of its shot attempts en route to the 110-92 decision.

Truman's (3-1) lead over Upper Iowa (5-2) in the all-time series is down to three, 6-3, and the most recent meeting marks head coach, Chris Foster's first loss to good friend and fellow Northern Iowa grad, Brooks McKowen. The Peacocks finished with five scorers in double-figures led by Carson Parker's triple-double of 23 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists.

For the good guys, Zach Fischer continued his early-season tear with yet another double-double, his third in four games and fourth of his career. Fischer brought down 25 points and 17 boards, both of which are career highs, in 31 minutes of action. For his redshirt-senior season, the St. Louis native is now averaging 20 points and 12.8 rebounds per contest while shooting an absurd 68.2 percent from the floor and 55.6 percent from behind the arc.

Behind the 6-4 big man, Jake Velky and Jack Green also reached double-figures in scoring with 19 points and 14 points, respectively. Velky was the team's leader in assists with four to put his season average at 3.5 per game while Nathan Messer paced the Bulldogs in steals with two. Velky, the team's leading scorer at 22.3 points per game, and Messer both struggled as they went a combined 7-for-28 from the floor.

In comparison to Upper Iowa's 58.2 field goal percentage (39-of-67), Truman answered with a clip of 42.2 percent (27-for-64) including just 37.5 percent (12-of-32) in the first 20 minutes. The Bulldogs were beat up on the glass as the Peacocks out-rebounded them by 12, 41-29, including 32-22 on the defensive end. If not for 33 free throw attempts, 30 of them makes, Truman isn't able to hang around nearly as well.

At the break, Upper Iowa had its biggest lead of the game at 20, 53-33. Out of the intermission, Truman used a 12-2 run to cut the deficit to 10, 55-45, the smallest it had been since 25-15 at the 9:54 mark of the first half. The Peacocks increased their lead back to 18 twice at 71-53 and 73-55, but the Bulldogs used an 8-0 run to pull within nine, 92-83, with 5:20 to play. That spurt was capped by a Messer three and he hit another at the 4:10 mark to cut it to nine again at 95-86. Truman slimmed it to nine once more at 97-88, but never got closer than that.

Next up, the Bulldogs' schedule doesn't let up as they will play the No. 1 ranked team in the nation and defending National Champion, Northwest Missouri State. Saturday's tip is set for 3 p.m. inside Bearcat Arena.

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