KIRKSVILLE, Mo. - The Truman State University men's basketball team wasted no time dictating how Thursday's matchup with Wisconsin-Parkside was going to go. The Bulldogs scored the game's first 20 points and their lead was slimmed to single digits just once after that as they cruised to a 29-point win over the Rangers, 89-60, inside Pershing Arena.

With the win, Truman improved to 16-8 overall, 11-4 in the GLVC and has won its last four games in a row. Meanwhile, Wisconsin-Parkside dropped to 9-16 on the season, 7-8 in league play and has lost three of its last four. After coming up short in his first four meetings against the Rangers, head coach, Chris Foster, has led the Bulldogs to victories in the last two showdowns.

Entering this game, Zach Fischer (pictured) had been held without a double-double for a season-high four games, but he found his mojo on Thursday night. Fischer finished with his 15th career double-double, 14th of the year, thanks to 23 points and 11 rebounds on an efficient 10-of-13 from the field. Behind the redshirt-senior, four more scorers reached double-figures including Brodric Thomas (16), Jake Velky (16), Turner Scott (12), and Nathan Messer (12).

Scott ran the offense with a career high seven assists, Thomas and Lusso each had two blocks, and Thomas also notched a pair of steals. Redshirt-freshman, Mark Rogers, made his Pershing Arena debut with four minutes played and scored his first-career points with a layup at the 2:43 mark. Team wise, the Purple and White assisted on 19 of their 34 field goals and only turned the ball over six times while the Rangers managed just eight dimes to 10 giveaways.

As mentioned above, Truman busted out of the gates with a 20-0 run that lasted nearly seven minutes. During that stretch, the Bulldogs cashed in on eight of their 10 field goal attempts, including 4-of-4 from deep, while the Rangers were 0-for-8 in the same span. Wisconsin-Parkside responded with a 13-3 spurt of its own and that cut the margin to 10, 23-13, with just over eight minutes left in the half. The home team quickly erased any hope for its visitors as it rattled off 14 of the next 19 points to get the lead back to 19, 37-18, at the 3:21 mark. However, the Rangers ended the stanza with a mini 9-3 run and the Bulldogs' advantage was 13, 40-27, heading into the locker room.

Wisconsin-Parkside carried that momentum into the second half with seven of the next nine points, and Truman's lead was slimmed to single digits for the final time, 42-34. From there on out, the Rangers never scored more than three points in a row and the Bulldogs led by as many as 32, 89-57, before the final 29-point margin.

Every game in this conference is critical, but Saturday's is arguably the most important of the season. Truman hosts No. 7 Bellarmine (23-2, 14-2 GLVC) inside Pershing and the tip is set for approximately 3 p.m.

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