KIRKSVILLE, Mo. - Despite leading at halftime over Missouri-St. Louis, 31-22, while shooting 42.9 percent (12-of-28) from the field, the Truman State University men's basketball team let one slip away on Thursday night inside Pershing Arena. The Tritons snapped the Bulldogs' five-game home winning streak and held the Purple and White to just 30.8 percent (8-for-26) shooting in the second half en route to the three-point defeat, 61-58.

Truman (8-9, 3-4 GLVC) has dropped four games in a row to sink below the .500 mark in league play for the first time this season. On the other side, Missouri-St. Louis (13-4, 4-3 GLVC) gets above water in both conference action and true road games (2-1). When it comes to the all-time series, the Tritons now lead it by 11, 27-16, and have taken two straight in it for the first time since 2016.

Thirty-five of Truman's 58 points (60.3 percent) came from two players in Brodric Thomas (22 points) and Taurin Hughes (13). Thomas stuffed the stat sheet with 22 points, 12 rebounds (career high), four steals (ties Truman best), three assists, and one block, but missed a point-blank layup to tie the game with 10 seconds left. The Bulldogs have two double-doubles this season and both have come from No. 3. Thomas also snapped a two-game streak in which he failed to score 10 or more points and six of the Purple and White's 15 20-point games this season have come from the redshirt junior including three of the top four scoring efforts (28, 27 and 26).

The Tritons leading scorer, Johnathan Matthews, was held scoreless in the first half and attempted just two field goals before scoring all 11 of his points in the second period. UMSL was led in scoring by Anthony Hughes' 12 points and those were the only two Tritons to reach double-figures. UMSL shot just 33.3 percent (9-of-27) in the first frame before upping that mark to an even 50 percent (14-for-28) in the second.

The first half saw two ties and two lead changes with Missouri-St. Louis' biggest lead being one, 16-15, and Truman's being nine, 31-22, heading into the halftime break. Out of the intermission, the Bulldogs scored seven of the first 11 points to take their biggest lead of the night at 12, 38-26. With just over 10 minutes remaining, Truman's lead was 11, 45-34, but Missouri-St. Louis stormed back with a 14-1 run to go ahead for just the second time, 48-46, at the 7:06 mark. Despite three more deadlocks (48-48, 50-50 and 52-52), the Bulldogs could never regain an advantage and the Tritons went ahead by as many as six, 59-53, with just under a minute to go.

A Turner Scott layup cut it to four, 59-55, with 42 seconds left and a Nathan Messer triple dwindled the deficit to one, 59-58, with around 30 ticks on the scoreboard. On the other end, UMSL's Ronnie Carson made one of two at the free throw line to make it 60-58 before Thomas came up empty on the layup. Carson again made one of two free throws to keep it a one possession game before Truman inbounded it for one last effort. Nikola Pesic rebounded the miss and outlet it to Scott who dribbled up to the three point line before kicking to Hughes for a three-point attempt that came up begging.

Saddled with a second four-game losing streak of the season, Truman will host Maryville on Saturday with the tip set for approximately 3 p.m.

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