LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Saturday's NCAA Tournament Midwest Region quarterfinal matchup between the Truman men's basketball team and No. 14 Ferris State was a tale of two halves. The Purple and White led by six, 39-33, at the half, but were outscored by 14, 53-39, in the final 20 minutes. FSU now moves on to play the sixth seed and fellow GLIAC member, Findlay, on Sunday in the regional semifinals with tip set for 5 p.m. eastern time. In game one on Saturday, Findlay upset third-seeded Southern Indiana, 70-69.

With the loss, Truman falls to 22-10, but still goes down in the program's record books as head coach, Chris Foster's third 20-win team in as many seasons. Ferris State (28-4) pushed its winning streak to eight and will look to make it back-to-back appearances in the Sweet Sixteen with a win over the Oilers on Sunday.

After hurting his ankle early in the GLVC quarterfinal game against Southern Indiana and missing the semifinal showdown with Lewis, Jake Velky showed why he was missed so dearly against Ferris State. The sophomore shooter put Truman on the board with a three-pointer just over a minute into action and that was a sign of things to come. Velky tallied nine of the Purple and White's first 19 points as part of his game-high 14 first half points. The Waverly, Iowa native finished with 21 points and turned in yet another stellar performance in which he missed the team's previous game. Velky missed three games this year and in the three following those, he averaged 23.7 points per night while shooting 58 percent (19-of-33) from the field and 50 percent (10-for-20) from behind the arc.

Velky was one of four players in double-figures for Truman including Connor Erickson (19), Cory Myers (13) and Dwight Sistrunk, Jr. (11). Erickson was two rebounds shy of capturing his sixth double-double of the year, Myers led the squad in both assists (4) and steals (5), while Nikola Pesic was the ringleader in blocks with two. In the team head-to-head, the Purple and White had held the advantage in points off turnovers (18-10) and points in the paint (38-24), but got manhandled in bench scoring to the tune of 32-8. Ferris State outrebounded Truman by 10, 38-28, but only had five steals to Truman's 14.

In the first half, it was all Truman early. The good guys opened the game on a 10-2 run, which forced Ferris State to call a timeout at the 16:30 mark. During that opening stretch, Velky had six points while Pesic and Erickson registered two apiece. The Purple and White stretched their lead to 10 twice (14-4 and 25-15) and eventually took their biggest lead of the game at 13, 30-17, with 5:58 to play until the intermission. However, FSU rattled off eight-straight points to slim the margin to five, 30-25, and Foster called a timeout of his own. Out of the breather, Truman scored seven straight to get its advantage back to 12, 37-25 before Ferris State finished the period with eight of a possible 10 points and the deficit was six heading into the locker room.

Just under five minutes into the second half, Velky converted on a layup and Truman's lead was back to double-figures at 10, 50-40. Ferris State proceeded to score 14 of the next 18 points and the game was deadlocked, 54-54. After a second tie at 56-56 and Nathan Messer's jumper that gave Truman a two-point lead, 58-56, D'angelo Hughes splashed a three for Ferris State to give FSU its first lead since 2-0. The Purple and White's final lead was 62-61 at the 7:22 mark and after two more ties (64-64 and 66-66), Ferris State outscored Truman 20-12 the rest of the way.

Suiting up for the final time in the Purple and White were Myers, Erickson, Sistrunk Jr., Billy Daniel, and Kyle Kanaskie. Those five combined for 93 wins while taking Truman from 10 wins in 2012-13 to 20 in both 2013-14 and 2014-15, 21 in 2015-16, and 22 this year. Their final season will be remembered as arguably the most prolific offensive effort this program has ever seen. In the single-season record books, this year's squad is first in total points, first in points per game, first in field goal percentage, first in three-pointers made, first in three-pointers attempted, first in three-point field goal percentage, first in free throw percentage, second in field goals made, fourth in free throws made, tied for fourth in assists, fifth in field goals attempted, and eighth in free throws attempted.

Looking ahead to the 2017-18 campaign, Truman returns 12 of its 17 players from this roster including four redshirt freshmen in Turner Scott, Alex McQuinn, Mark Rogers, and Tanner Zeil, as well as three incoming recruits.

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