Truman Game Notes (.PDF)
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KIRKSVILLE, Mo. - Survive and advance. That's the key when postseason play rolls around right? Well, the Truman men's basketball team did much more than that in its first-round game against Missouri S&T this past Sunday inside Pershing Arena. The Bulldogs reached the century mark and made quick work of the Miners, 102-83.
Cory Myers had a career-high day with 30 points on 11-of-13 shooting, including a red-hot 8-for-10 from behind the arc. With the win, the Purple and White set themselves up for a quarterfinal date with 12th-ranked Southern Indiana in Evansville, Indiana's Ford Center.
Myers was one of five Bulldogs to score at least 10 points in that game including
Jake Velky (19),
Kyle Kanaskie (15),
Connor Erickson (12), and
Nikola Pesic (11/ties career high). Altogether, playing their final game inside the friendly confines, the seniors combined for 65 points or just under 64 percent of the offensive output.
Zach Fischer had another big game off the bench, this time with six points, a game-high nine boards (ties personal best), a team-high four assists (ties career high), and no turnovers in 24 minutes. Erickson also dished out four dimes, which ties his best ever, and
Dwight Sistrunk, Jr. came up with a game-high three swipes.
The Bulldogs hosted a GLVC Tournament first-round game for the fourth year in a row and won that game for the third-consecutive season. Now, Truman will look to get over the hump and into the semifinals with a win over Southern Indiana on Thursday in the Screaming Eagles' hometown. Southern Indiana has won three straight in the all-time series and leads it 4-1. Bulldog head coach,
Chris Foster, will be looking for his first win against the Screaming Eagles, while Rodney Watson is 3-1 vs. Truman during his tenure as Southern Indiana's head man.
Scouting the Screaming Eagles
In 2016-17, Southern Indiana has suffered just three losses all season, and two of them came against the top team in the region, Bellarmine. The Screaming Eagles will begin play in the GLVC Tournament having just come off one of those losses to the Knights and it came in the regular-season finale, 67-61.
This year, the Screaming Eagles have been led by one of the most potent scores in the GLVC in Jeril Taylor. Taylor's 20.3 points per game are tied for first in the league with Quincy's Joe Tagarelli. Taylor was a four-time Player of the Week for the conference this season just like Tagarelli, both of whom are seniors. Behind Taylor for Southern Indiana are three more scorers averaging at least 10 points per contest including Alex Stein (17.7), Bobo Drummond (10.3) and Julius Rajala (10.2).
Taylor is also the team's leading rebounder with 8.3 boards per game while shooting over 45 percent from the field (179-of-390) and over 42 percent from three-point land (86-for-201). On the glass after Taylor, Jacob Norman and Cortez Macklin both average 4.6 rebounds per night. Stein is far and away the team's best free throw shooter at 92.4 percent (145-of-157), which is second in the GLVC behind Eric Davidson from Indianapolis at 93.2 percent.
Last Time Out
10th-ranked Southern Indiana defeated Truman 111-89 inside Pershing Arena behind 50 points from Jeril Taylor. The Bulldogs were led by
Jake Velky's 28 points on 9-of-17 shooting from the field and a 6-for-13 performance from behind the arc to go with seven rebounds and two assists.
Cory Myers was next up with 22 points, four boards, six dimes, one block, and one steal.
Connor Erickson registered double-figures with 12 points, six rebounds, two swats, and one steal. Off the bench,
Billy Daniel was Truman's final double-figure scorer with 10 points, seven boards and three blocks. Taylor scored his 50 on 13-of-15 shooting, 9-for-9 from range and 15 makes in 20 attempts from the free throw line. Taylor was one rebound shy of the double-double to go with six assists and three steals.
Third Time's the Charm
This matchup marks the third year in a row that the Truman men's basketball team won the opening round game that it hosted to get to the quarterfinals of the GLVC Tournament. In 2015, the Bulldogs defeated Quincy in the first round (84-64) before beating Missouri-St. Louis last season (90-84). However, both of those wins were followed by quarterfinal losses against the likes of Wisconsin-Parkside in 2015 (73-70) and the Rangers again in 2016 (77-62). Thursday marks Truman's fourth appearance in the league tournament in as many years, but the Bulldogs will be looking to make it to the semifinal round for the first time in those four tries.
Best of the Best
This matchup boasts the top two scoring offenses in the conference. Southern Indiana is first in the GLVC in points per game with 89.7 and Truman is one notch down in second with 88.1. These two teams have combined to score 90 or more points in a game 28 times (Truman - 15, Southern Indiana - 13) and at least 100 on nine different occasions (Southern Indiana - 7, Truman - 2). Breaking down that scoring even more, the Bulldogs are fourth in field goal percentage to sixth by the Screaming Eagles, Truman is first in three-point field goal percentage to Southern Indiana in fourth and the Screaming Eagles are third in free throw percentage to the Bulldogs in sixth.
Next up
If the Bulldogs can get past the Screaming Eagles and into the semifinals, they will face the winner of the late game between two-seed Quincy and seven-seed Lewis. That semifinal game would be played on Saturday with tip set for 2:30 p.m. central time.
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