ABERDEEN, S.D. - It's no secret, the schedule for first-year head coach, Jeff Horner, and the Truman State University men's basketball team has been an absolute gauntlet. In the Bulldogs' first six games Including Saturday's showdown with Sioux Falls (5-0), four have come against teams that were featured in the NABC top 25 poll and four were played in a span of nine days with trips to a couple different states. Well, Horner and company can exhale (ever so briefly) after knocking off No. 18 Northern State on the road on Friday night, 61-59.

With the win, the Bulldogs (1-4) get Horner into the win column for the first time as a collegiate head coach and pick up their first true road win over a ranked opponent in nearly six years. The last time it happened was at No. 10 Washburn on Jan. 16, 2013 (64-56) and Truman had been 0-7 in those games prior to Friday. Meanwhile, Northern State falls to 3-2 and had its three-game winning streak snapped.

Truman was led in scoring by Turner Scott (15 points) for the third time in five games and two of those game-high 15 came on the eventual game-winner, a fadeaway jumper from just below the free throw line with 13 seconds on the clock (video). Two other Bulldogs reached double-figures in that department including Taurin Hughes with 11 and Cade McKnight with 10. Jacob Socha (pictured) paced the team with a game-high eight rebounds, Scott added three assists and Nathan Messer was on top of steals with two.

Getting into the breakdown, it was all about the Bulldogs early on as they stormed out to a 10-point lead, 13-3, with just over five minutes gone by. During that opening span alone, five different players found the scoring column for the Purple and White and they were a perfect 4-of-4 from the floor. The Wolves answered with a triple and jumper in back-to-back possessions, but Truman kept the pressure on and pushed its lead to as many as 13, 24-11, at the 8:08 mark. From there until the break, the home team outscored its visitors by seven, 16-9, but the Bulldogs had their first halftime lead of the season, 33-27.

Northern State got the scoring started in the second half with a jumper to cut the margin to four before Nikola Pesic and Hughes splashed back-to-back treys to get it back to 10, 39-29. The Wolves then pulled within five, 34-29, but the Bulldogs continued to have a counter as they stretched the advantage back out to 12, 51-39. However, the hosts then embarked on an 18-5 run that gave them a 57-56 lead, their first since it was 2-1 just over two minutes into the game. Following two more lead changes, the contest saw its second and final tie at 59-59. From there until Scott's go-ahead two, the two teams combined to go 0-for-3 from the field and 0-of-2 at the free throw line.

Once Scott put the good guys up by a deuce, Northern State's Bo Fries committed an offensive foul on a drive to the basket, but Socha turned it over on the ensuing inbounds. With under a second left, the Wolves pass up the court went out of bounds and they called a timeout to run one final play. The lob bounced off the backboard and Parker Fox's last-chance jumper went in, but after further review (video), he didn't get it off in time.

Next up, Truman will face undefeated Sioux Falls on Saturday with tip set for 4 p.m. In Friday's first game, the Cougars defeated Chadron State by eight, 78-70.

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