Truman Game Notes (.PDF)
KIRKSVILLE, Mo. - The Truman State University men's basketball team is back from a 10-day Thanksgiving break and resumes play with a pair of home games to end November and flip the calendar over to December. The Bulldogs will face Lincoln for the 85th time in the all-time series and Missouri-St. Louis for the 42nd time in the 2017-18 Great Lakes Valley Conference opener.
This 10-day hiatus comes after the Purple and White played five games in eight days to open the season and came away with a 3-2 record in that span. Truman won its first three in a row over Trevecca Nazarene, Cedarville and Lindenwood before falling in back-to-back games against the likes of Upper Iowa and No.-1 ranked Northwest Missouri State.
So far, the Bulldogs have four players averaging double-figures in scoring including
Jake Velky (18.4 points per game),
Zach Fischer (18),
Jack Green (13.2), and
Taurin Hughes (12.2). Amongst those four, Fischer continues to be the headline as he is averaging a double-double with 11.2 rebounds per game to go with those 18 points per outing. Both Velky and Fischer are amongst the top 10 in the GLVC in scoring as the junior is fifth and the redshirt senior is three spots back in eighth. As far as boards, no one in the GLVC is coming down with more of them than Fischer.
Scouting Lincoln
Lincoln has lost two games in a row after opening the season with three wins in its first four outings. Unlike Truman, the Blue Tigers were busy over the Thanksgiving holiday as they played a pair of contests in Drury's Ramada Oasis Thanksgiving Classic against William Jewell on Nov. 24 (92-76 loss) and Drury on Nov. 25 (100-90 loss). Lincoln is in year No. four under head coach, John Moseley, who has an overall record of 40-54 (.426 winning percentage) during that time. Moseley has made something of the Blue Tigers who went just 4-24 in his first season back in 2014-15. Since then, Lincoln was two games above the .500 mark in 2015-16 (16-14) and four games above even in 2016-17 (17-13). The Blue Tigers feature a trio of scorers putting up at least 10 points per game and all are averaging at least 18 per contest. Those three players are Amariontez Ivory (20.3), John Burton (18.2) and Terrance Smith (18).
Scouting Missouri-St. Louis
It has been an up-and-down season so far for Missouri-St. Louis as it split the first two games in Michigan, won the home opener, lost two in a row on the road, and defeated Robert Morris-Peoria back at home on Nov. 25, 83-64. The Tritons will open GLVC play at Drury on Thursday before coming to Kirksville on Saturday. UMSL's head coach, Bob Sundvold, is in year No. 13 as a collegiate head coach to go with more than 30 years of experience both as a head coach and assistant coach. During his time with the Tritons, Sundvold has amassed a record of 61-59 (.508 winning percentage). So far this season, UMSL has been led in scoring by senior guard and Terre Haute, Ind. native, Steven Davis. Davis is putting up 13.2 points per game and is one of three Tritons that has started all five of the team's games. The other player for UMSL averaging double-figures in scoring has been junior guard, Johnathan Matthews, out of Phoenix, Ariz. Matthews is dropping 11 points per contest.
Fearsome Foursome
As mentioned briefly above, Truman currently has four players averaging at least 10 points per game including
Jake Velky (18.4),
Zach Fischer (18),
Jack Green (13.2), and
Taurin Hughes (12.2). It's safe to say that two of those names were expected and the other two come as a bit of a surprise. Last season, Velky led the Bulldogs in scoring with 16.1 points per contest and Fischer, while he had never started a game, averaged nearly 11 points per game in his final seven outings of the year. As for Green and Hughes, they had combined to appear in 53 games prior to this year, had never made a start and were both averaging less than four points per game in their careers. Fast forward to this year, Green has started all five games and Hughes has started four of them while the projected starting point guard,
Turner Scott, has been slowed by an injury.
Senior Send-Off
Zach Fischer, Truman's lone senior, is saving the best play of his career for last. Right now amongst the best in the GLVC, No. 22 is first in rebounds per game (11.2), second in field goal percentage (.694) and eighth in points per contest (18). In 55 career games played prior to this season, Fischer had recorded one double-double and it came in game No. 54 vs. Lewis in the GLVC Tournament on March 4, 2017 (16 points and 10 rebounds). In five games as a redshirt senior, the St. Louis native has three double-doubles including two in the last three contests. The biggest of those performances, despite coming in a loss, was vs. Upper Iowa when Fischer went off for 25 points and 17 boards, both of which are personal bests.
What's Next?
Next up, Truman will be on the road for three games in a row beginning with a GLVC affair at McKendree on Thursday, Dec. 7 at 7:30 p.m. Then, right before Christmas break, the Bulldogs will play in Quincy's Subway Holiday Classic against Ohio Valley on Saturday, Dec. 16 (1 p.m.) and Missouri Southern State the following Sunday, also at 1 p.m.
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