KIRKSVILLE, Mo. - The Truman men's basketball team led William Jewell by as many as 18 on Thursday night in Pershing Arena, but the Cardinals didn't make it easy the rest of the way. The Bulldogs led the entire night, but the margin was slimmed to four, 88-84, with just 18 seconds on the clock. The good guys persevered, though, put the game on ice and pulled out the six-point decision, 92-86.

After dropping three of four, Truman has been winners in back-to-back games to improve its overall record to 19-7, including an 11-5 mark in GLVC play. The Bulldogs next win will give them four-straight 20-win seasons, which has never been done in program history. In fact, until Chris Foster made it two in a row in 2014-15, Truman had never even had consecutive 20-win campaigns and had only recorded four in school history (1978-79, 1998-99, 2005-06, and 2013-14). Meanwhile, William Jewell falls 8-16 on the year and 4-12 in league action. In Illinois, Quincy held on for a buzzer-beating victory over Rockhurst, 76-75, to stay one game ahead of the Bulldogs in the West Division with two games to play.

Truman reached the 90-point plateau for a 12th time in 2016-17, so it was just another day at the office for a Foster-coached squad. In the 20 seasons before the Northern Iowa grad took over the reins (1994-2014), the Bulldogs scored 90 points in a game just 35 times. Putting that in perspective, it's now happened 30 times out of 86 games (35 percent) in two-plus seasons with Foster leading the way (!!!).

Breaking Thursday's 92 points down, Truman boasted a quintet of players with at least 10 points including Cory Myers (25), Connor Erickson (20), Dwight Sistrunk, Jr. (16), Nikola Pesic (11/career high), and Zach Fischer (11). Sistrunk Jr. was one rebound (tied personal best with nine) and one assist shy of the Bulldogs' second triple-double of the year to go with two steals against his former school while Fischer blocked two shots (career high) and Myers was back at it again. No. 12 added six boards, six dimes and one swipe with seven makes in nine attempts from behind the arc. The Ankeny, Iowa native tied personal bests for field goals made (eight), three-pointers made and three-pointers attempted.

Erickson was three rebounds short of his fifth career double-double (all this season) and has been playing on another planet in the month of February. In his last five games, the Overland Park, Kan. native is averaging 19.2 points, 7.0 rebounds, 1.8 blocks, and 1.2 steals per night while shooting 61.9 percent (39-of-63) from the field and 81.8 percent (18-for-22) at the free throw line. During that stretch, Erickson has poured in 20 points four times. He had only scored that many in a game three times out of 90 career games played prior to February of 2017. With just two games remaining in his final regular season as a Bulldog, Erickson is playing arguably the best basketball of his career.

As a team, Truman shot 52.4 percent (33-of-63) from the floor and eclipsed 50 percent in that category for a 13th time this season (11-2 record). The Bulldogs made 47.4 percent (9-for-19) of their looks from deep, but struggled at the charity stripe with a percentage of just 63.0 (17-of-27). In the team head-to-head, Truman controlled the action in second-chance points (13-2), bench points (16-10), points in the paint (48-30), rebounds (41-32), and assists (20-6). The Bulldogs have now tallied 20 or more dimes in a game nine times this year (9-0 record).

In the first half, the hosts came out of the gate hot with a 19-11 lead at the 12:11 mark. Truman started 7-for-13 in shot attempts and three different Bulldogs found the scoring column during that span. William Jewell proceeded to score the next six points and cut the margin to two, 19-17. From then until the end of the half, Truman outscored the Cardinals by 14, 29-15, and headed into the locker room with a 16-point advantage, 48-32. William Jewell was held to 35.1-percent shooting in the first period (13-of-37). Out of the break, the Bulldogs pushed their lead to 18 as mentioned above, 57-39, before the Cardinals began to chip away. From then until the end of the game, William Jewell scored 47 to Truman's 35, but was never closer than four points to the Bulldogs.

Next up, it's Senior Day for Truman on Saturday vs. Rockhurst with tip set for 3 p.m. Five Bulldogs will be recognized for their outstanding careers in the Purple and White including Erickson, Sistrunk Jr., Myers, Kyle Kanaskie, and Billy Daniel.

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