ABERDEEN, S.D. - It's pretty safe to say that point guard, Turner Scott (pictured), enjoys having the ball in his hands for high leverage situations. With the score tied, 67-67, and under 10 seconds remaining in the game, Jacob Socha stole the ball from Sioux Falls' Trevon Evans and started up the 2-on-1 fast break for Truman. Socha drew the defender in, dumped the ball off to Scott to his left who laid it in despite contact and put in the free throw for the old fashioned three-point play. That play gave the Bulldogs their second-straight win in as many nights.

Truman improved to 2-4 after its first ever game against Sioux Falls while the Cougars (5-1) lost for the first time this season after receiving 21 votes in this week's NABC top 25 poll. Sioux Falls came in averaging 80.6 points per game during its five wins and was held to just 41.1 percent (23-of-56) shooting from the floor against the Bulldogs.

Scott (20 points) turned in his first 20-point game of the season and second of his career as he was one point off his personal best. The redshirt sophomore was three points away from tying his career high in the second half alone as he poured in 18 points in 18 minutes while going 7-for-8 from the field, 1-of-1 from behind the arc and 3-for-3 at the free throw line. Scott also had three rebounds, three assists, just one turnover, and a steal. The Clive, Iowa native averaged seven points per game last season, but has more than doubled that so far this season with 15 per outing.

Nathan Messer followed up Scott with 19 points of his own, 12 of which came in the first half, which included five makes in 11 attempts from three-point land and a game-high two steals. Truman was also led by Taurin Hughes in both rebounds with six and just as many assists as Scott with three.

The game opened with three ties and one lead change before Truman began to gather some momentum. Once it was 7-7 just over three minutes in, the Bulldogs used an 18-6 run that put them up by 12, 25-13, with 9:12 to play until halftime. However, Sioux Falls scored 20 of the next 23 points to head into the locker room with a five-point advantage, 33-28. The Cougars' run lasted over nine minutes and Truman failed to score a point for the final 6:19 of the half.

For roughly the first eight and a half minutes of the second period, Truman outscored Sioux Falls by six, 16-10, to regain the lead, 44-43. The Cougars' Trevon Evans then hit a three but Tanner Zeil hit a triple to keep the lead on the good guys' side, 47-46. The Bulldogs would then push their lead back to as many as eight on two different occasions including 63-55 and 65-57, but the Cougars didn't go away. Once it was 65-57, Sioux Falls used a 10-2 spurt to knot it back up for a sixth and final time at 67-67 before Scott took things into his own hands.

Next up, Truman will carry this two-game winning streak into conference play with the GLVC opener on Thursday, Nov. 29 against Rockhurst. Tip inside Pershing Arena is set for 7:30 p.m. following the women's game.

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