QUINCY, Ill. - After a halftime tie of 34-34, Missouri Southern State outscored the Truman State University men's basketball team 21-5 to open the second period, finished that run with 16 points in a row and didn't look back. The Lions went on to win their fourth game in a row by 11, 85-74, inside Quincy's Pepsi Arena.

Truman (5-5) now owns an all-time record of 7-9 (.438 winning percentage) in the QU Subway Holiday Classic and head coach, Chris Foster, suffered his first loss in the event (3-1). On the other side, Missouri Southern (6-5) is above the .500 mark for the first time all year after winning just two of its first seven contests.

For the Bulldogs, Nathan Messer eclipsed 20 points for the first time this season and fifth time in his career with 21 on 8-of-14 shooting including 4-for-7 from behind the arc. After Messer, three more players reached double-figures for the Purple and White including Zach Fischer (16), Brodric Thomas (13) and Jake Velky (10). For Fischer, his 14 rebounds mean seven double-doubles for the year and eight in his career. Those seven double-doubles are the most in a single season by a Truman player since Ethan Freeman racked up 11 as a senior in 2010-11.

In the team head-to-head, Missouri Southern out-shot Truman 55.4 percent (36-of-65) to 43.8 percent (28-for-64) after both teams shot over 50 percent in the first 20 minutes. For the weekend, the Bulldogs were unable to get it going from deep as they converted just 13 of 49 looks from three-point land (26.5 percent). The Lions' bench came up big as it outscored the Bulldogs' by 17, 27-10. Truman held Missouri Southern's leading scorer, Elyjah Clark to 12 points including three in the first half, but point guard, CJ Carr, stepped up with 23 points of his own and a near triple-double.

The Lions opened the game with a 7-0 run and led 11-4 before the Bulldogs slimmed the margin to two at 11-9. During those first eight minutes and change to begin the day, Truman was just 3-of-14 from the field (21.4 percent) and 1-for-7 from long range (14.3 percent). Once it was 13-9 in favor of Missouri Southern, the Purple and White answered with a 9-2 run capped off by back-to-back three-pointers by Messer and had their first lead at 20-18. Aside from three ties, Truman had the advantage the rest of the way before the 34-34 deadlock heading into the locker room.

As mentioned above, Missouri Southern scored 21 of the first 26 points out of the intermission and led by as many as 16, 55-39. After that, the closest Truman could get was eight points on four occasions, but the Lions held on for the double-digit decision.

Next up, Truman will host Iowa Wesleyan on Saturday, Dec. 30 with tip set for 1 p.m. inside Pershing Arena.

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