KIRKSVILLE, Mo. - In front of a loud Pershing Arena crowd and with several alumni in the house, the Truman State University men's basketball team gave the fans what they wanted on Saturday afternoon. Aside from one tie and three lead changes in the early going, the Bulldogs led Rockhurst for nearly 38 of the 40 minutes en route to a workmanlike 82-71 win over the Hawks.

After its first home game in almost three weeks, Truman (13-8, 8-4 GLVC) improved to 26-14 in the all-time series vs. Rockhurst and has won the two teams' last five meetings. Meanwhile, the Hawks (11-11, 4-8 GLVC) had their two-game winning streak snapped and have dropped three of their last four in league play.

Turner Scott (pictured) started 12 games in a row before coming off the bench at Drury on Thursday. Saturday, Scott wasn't in the starting lineup again, but the made the most of his role and played with a renewed sense of confidence. The 5-10 point guard tied the team high with 17 points on 5-of-9 shooting, converted on six of his eight attempts at the free throw line, and also had two rebounds, a pair of assists and two steals. Scott must also like playing against his former high school teammate, Quinton Curry, because of the three times he has scored in double-figures this season, two of those came against Rockhurst. The same can be said for Curry who averaged a double-double vs. the Bulldogs this season with 28.5 points and 13 rebounds per game. His 31 points on Saturday are the most by a Truman opponent in 2017-18.

Brodric Thomas also finished with 17 points, Zach Fischer had 14 as he came within one board of a double-double, and Jake Velky added 13. Fischer and Velky each scored 11 of their points in the second half. Three different players tallied three assists including Thomas, Velky and Nathan Messer while Thomas and Taurin Hughes each came away with three steals.

The one deadlock and three lead changes mentioned above came in the first two minutes and change before Truman scored 12-straight points to go ahead by 11, 17-6, just under five minutes in. During that span, the Bulldogs made five of their six field goal attempts and four different players found the scoring column. As is always the case, though, Rockhurst scraped and clawed with 13 of the next 19 points to trim the margin back to four at the 7:07 mark, 23-19. Once again, the home team had an answer with the next eight points and it was back up by 12, 31-19, with just over five and a half minutes until the intermission. From there, the advantage was as little as seven twice, including the halftime score of 37-30.

Right out of the locker room and with just 11 seconds gone by, a Curry layup made the score 37-32. After that until the final buzzer, Truman's lead was never slimmer than six, 40-34, and ballooned to as big as 19, 71-52.

Next up, the Bulldogs will be at William Jewell on Thursday with the start time set for 7:30 p.m.

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