KIRKSVILLE, Mo. - It may only be the middle of January, but Monday night in Pershing Arena sure felt a lot like March. The Truman State University men's basketball team and visiting Drury boasted the GLVC's two best winning streaks entering the Martin Luther King Jr. Day showdown and the 45 minutes of basketball that followed didn't disappoint. The Bulldogs came back from as many as 16 down to force an extra period and even led by one with under five seconds left, but the Panthers' Andrew Ballock sunk a three from the left corner as time expired to win it, 98-96.

Truman (10-6, 5-2 GLVC) had its five-game winning streak snapped while Drury (12-2, 5-1 GLVC) made it seven-consecutive victories. The Bulldogs had also won three straight in the all-time series of which the Panthers tied at eight victories apiece after Monday's heartbreaker.

Jake Velky (pictured), who gave Truman a one-point advantage, 96-95, with 4.7 seconds left, led all scorers with 25 points, six assists and three rebounds. Velky took 19 shots and made 9 of them (47.4 percent), including 2-of-8 from behind the arc, to go with a perfect 5-for-5 at the free throw line. The defending GLVC Player of the Week, Zach Fischer, was next up with 20 points, seven boards and converted all 13 of his free throw attempts to secure his seventh career 20-point performance.

The Bulldogs' 15th double-double of the year came from Brodric Thomas thanks to 15 points, 11 rebounds (career high), five assists, and was punctuated with a tomahawk dunk at the 1:54 mark of the second half (video). That effort gives Thomas five double-doubles for his career and three in the Purple and White. Nathan Messer and Jack Green represented the final two Truman scorers in double-figures with 14 points and 13 points, respectively. Five scorers reached double-figures for the sixth-straight game and four of them scored 10 or more for the eighth contest in a row.

The Purple and White made it a game with a historical effort at the charity stripe. In program history, when Truman has made 10 or more free throws in a game, Monday's percentage of .966 (28-of-29) is the seventh-best mark. In fact, the Bulldogs have never finished with a higher free throw percentage with at least 23 makes in school history.

In the team head-to-head, it's evident just how close this matchup was. The two squads were even in both rebounds (39) and turnovers (15) while Truman held a slim advantage in assists (21-18), blocks (2-1) and steals (9-8). For Drury, it had the slight upper hand for field goal percentage (49.3-45.5), points in the paint (42-40), points off turnovers (17-15), and second-chance points (10-8). The two categories where the Panthers exploited the Bulldogs were fast-break scoring (26-11) and bench scoring (59-22).

Right from the tip, it was a back-and-forth affair that featured two ties and four lead changes in the first 24 points scored. After Drury's Julius Walker hit a layup at the 14:10 mark to put his team up two, 14-12, Truman took the advantage back with a Taurin Hughes triple and held it for just under four minutes. With 10:24 until halftime, the Bulldogs were up by one, 23-22, but surrendered another layup to Walker and wouldn't lead again until overtime. The Panthers used a 12-2 run to take a seven-point advantage, 32-25, before the Bulldogs rattled off seven straight to knot it up at 32-32. Both teams continued to exchange buckets (11-11) until a 43-43 tie, but the away team scored the final nine points of the half to lead 52-43 heading into the locker room.

Out of the intermission, Drury outscored Truman by seven, 20-13, through the first eight minutes and had its biggest lead of the night, 72-56. A furious Bulldog comeback ensued. Over the next 11+ minutes, the Purple and White out-scored their visitors by 16, 27-11, and sent Truman to its second overtime contest of the season. One tie and six lead changes later, Velky took the inbounds pass all the way down to a left-handed layup and Truman had the lead. However, with no timeouts, Drury's Conley Garrison dumped it off to Ballock who did the rest.

Up next, Truman goes on the road to face a team it has never defeated in Indianapolis (0-4). Tip for the Thursday meeting is set for 7:30 p.m. eastern time inside Nicoson Hall.

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