ROMEOVILLE, Ill. - It was a tale of two halves on Thursday night as the Truman men's basketball team trailed Lewis by just three at the break, 45-42, before being outscored by 18 in the second period, 49-31. The Flyers went on to defeat the Bulldogs by 21, 94-73, and improved to 4-0 in the all-time series.

With the loss, Truman falls to 17-7 overall, 9-5 in the GLVC and has dropped three of its last four since opening the season at 16-4, 8-2 in league play. At Wisconsin-Parkside, the Rangers defeated Quincy 82-61, so the Bulldogs remain one game behind the Hawks in the West Division. On the other side, Lewis has been winners in five straight to improve to 16-8 on the year and 11-3 in conference action.

The Purple and White were led by 17 points from Jake Velky, 15 of which came in the first half, on five makes in 11 attempts from three-point land. The two other Bulldogs in double-figures were Dwight Sistrunk, Jr. with 16 and Connor Erickson with 10. Erickson was one rebound shy of a double-double, Kyle Kanaskie paced the team with four assists and Cory Myers was on top of the steal department with four. Myers also had nine points to go with four rebounds and two dimes.

In the first half, Lewis outscored Truman by 13, 25-12, through the first eight minutes and change before the Bulldogs began to heat up. The visitors then went on a 21-6 run over the course of six minutes and 14 seconds to take their first lead of the night, 33-31, with 5:29 remaining in the first half. During that stretch, five different Bulldogs found the scoring column led by nine of Velky's 17, as Truman was 7-of-12 from the field, 3-for-4 from distance and 4-of-5 at the free throw line. From then until halftime, there were four ties and three lead changes before the score of 45-42. Both teams combined to shoot an absurd 14-of-27 (51.9 percent) from deep in the first 20 minutes.

In the second half, it was all Lewis as the Flyers began with a 29-7 spurt to take their biggest lead of the game at 25, 74-49, with 12:18 until the final buzzer. After that, Truman was never closer than 20 before the final 21-point decision.

Up next, it doesn't get any easier for the Bulldogs who travel to Wisconsin-Parkside on Saturday with tip set for 3 p.m. This season, the Rangers are 12-0 at home and 63-8 there since the beginning of the 2012-13 campaign.

#BewareOfDog