KIRKSVILLE, Mo. - Trailing William Jewell by two, 72-70, the Truman State University men's basketball team had the length of the court to go and just 6.3 seconds to do it. Cade McKnight inbounded the ball to an undefended Taurin Hughes (pictured) just past the free throw line extended who turned and took off down the left side of the floor. Hughes came back towards the middle of the court, launched a three-pointer from just to the left of the top of the key with 3.5 ticks left and drained it. The Cardinals turned over the ensuing inbounds and the Bulldogs had done it, 73-72.

Since an 0-4 start to the season, Truman has since won four games in a row, all of which were by four points or less, including its first two within the GLVC. On the other side, William Jewell dropped its third-straight game to fall to 2-8 overall and 0-2 in league play. The Bulldogs now lead the all-time series with the Cardinals by 12, 15-3, and have taken the last nine-consecutive meetings.

Hughes finished with 10 points on 2-of-5 shooting, five rebounds, two assists and may have been the hero, but Turner Scott turned in another career night. Scott finished with a personal-best/game-high 29 points (12-for-20 FG), four steals (career high), two boards and two dimes without a single turnover in 39 of the game's 40 minutes. For the season, Scott is now averaging 16.4 points per game, which is eighth in the conference, with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.8, which is tied for 10th. Saturday, the final Bulldog in double-figures was McKnight with 12 to go with five rebounds, two assists and a block. For this week's two wins, Scott averaged 20.5 points per night and McKnight put up 18 per outing.

In the team head-to-head, William Jewell controlled points off turnovers (20-8), but Truman held the upper hand in both second chance points (10-3) and points in the paint (38-30). Shooting wise, it was a tale of two halves as the Cardinals out-shot the Bulldogs in the first half, 50 percent (16-of-32) to 34.3 percent (12-for-35). However, the tide turned in the second as Truman's field goal percentage rose up to 50 percent (14-of-28) and William Jewell's dropped to 37.5 percent (12-for-32).

The two teams combined to shoot just 16-of-55 (29 percent) from deep, but the Bulldogs made 14 of their 16 free throw attempts and outrebounded the Cardinals by 12, 42-30. Prior to Saturday, Truman hadn't brought down more than 32 rebounds in a single game all season. The Bulldogs also broke a streak of four games in which they didn't shoot above 80 percent at the charity stripe.

In the beginning, Truman stormed out to a 10-4 lead before William Jewell rattled off nine-straight points to take its second advantage of the day, 13-10. The Cardinals would hold two more three-point leads at 16-13 and 18-15 before the Bulldogs knotted it up for a third time at 18-18 thanks to a Mark Rogers' free throw and layup. Following another lead by the visitors at 20-18 and tie No. 4 at 20-20, a Nathan Messer trey and Scott layup gave the home team a five-point lead, 25-20. From there until the end of the half, aside from four more ties, the good guys went into the locker room up two, 40-38.

Out of the intermission, there were three more deadlocks (40-40, 48-48 and 50-50), but Truman was able to hold serve and even went ahead by as many as six on four different occasions. However, once it was 65-61 in favor of the Bulldogs, William Jewell used an 8-0 run that put it ahead by four, 69-65, with just under three and a half minutes remaining. The score would stay like that until the 1:35 mark when Messer dropped in a three from the right wing to cut the deficit to one. The Cardinals then missed a couple two-point looks on their end, but Brodric Thomas missed a jumper as well. When William Jewell got it back, Byron Harp was fouled with 20 seconds left and made both to make it a 71-68 game. For Truman's next possession, Scott made a fadeaway jumper in the paint with 6.4 ticks left and again, the Bulldogs fouled Harp. This time, Harp missed the first and made the second, which gave way to Hughes' heroics.

That will do it for GLVC play until January, so next up, Truman will be at Missouri Southern State on Tuesday with the tip set for 5:30 p.m.

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