KIRKSVILLE, Mo. - Despite dropping a seven-point decision to visiting Indianapolis on Thursday night in Pershing Arena, 84-77, the Truman State University men's basketball team will get the chance to play for a GLVC Tournament title. The Bulldogs needed an Illinois Springfield loss and got it as the Prairie Stars lost at home to Southern Indiana, 93-83. This keeps the streak alive as the Purple and White will play in a seventh-consecutive league tournament going back to the end of their MIAA tenure.

With Thursday night's loss, Truman falls to 14-13 overall, 9-8 in GLVC play and 1-6 in the all-time series with Indianapolis. The defeat also snapped a three-game home winning streak for the Bulldogs to make their record in Pershing 8-5, which means the most home losses since the 2012-13 season. Meanwhile, the Greyhounds, who had lost two in a row and four of their last six, get back into the win column at 18-9, including 11-6 in league action.

Fifty-one of Truman's 77 points came from three players including Cade McKnight's (pictured) game-high 19, Taurin Hughes' 18 and Brodric Thomas' 14. McKnight also tied with Hughes for the team lead in rebounds (5) and Thomas for the squad's top mark in assists (4). Nathan Messer paced the Bulldogs in steals with two while McKnight, Hughes and Olawale Odofin each had one of their three blocks. For Indianapolis, Jimmy King led four in double-figures with a double-double of 17 points, 10 assists and only two turnovers in 35 minutes. This effort for King comes after the junior had just seven points on 3-of-9 shooting in the two teams' first meeting back on Jan. 5.

On the flip side, Truman's point guard, Turner Scott, was held without a point for just the second time this season as the redshirt sophomore missed all of his four field goal attempts and dished out just one assist to one turnover. You'd have to go back to the 2017-18 season finale to find the last time that Scott was able to notch just one dime. The starting lineup's six other points came from a pair of Messer three-pointers, both of which were in the second half.

In the team head-to-head, the game's difference came from behind the arc where Indianapolis made 13 of its 23 looks (56.5 percent) compared to just 8-for-21 (38.1 percent) from Truman. Those 13 triples for the Greyhounds mark just the second time in the last 18 games and fifth time overall that the Bulldogs have given up at least 10 makes from deep. Indianapolis' 13 are second only to Missouri Southern's 16 on Dec. 4. Truman was outrebounded by six, 34-28, to Indianapolis, but the Greyhounds stuffed seven shots to the Bulldogs' three blocks and also had a severe advantage in fast-break points, 15-5.

Truman took care of the ball just fine with 17 assists and only five turnovers, but dropped just its second game (7-2) when handing out 17 or more dimes. On the other side, Indianapolis didn't fare as well with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 16-to-12.

Truman got the start it wanted as it scored 11 of the first 14 points for its biggest lead of the night at eight, 11-3. The Bulldogs also led by eight at 13-5 before Indianapolis proceeded to score 16 of the next 19 points to go ahead by five, 21-16. Truman responded, though, with a little 15-8 run that gave it the lead back, 31-29, with just over five minutes to go until halftime. Following the game's final three lead changes, the Greyhounds went into the locker room up four, 43-39.

Out of the locker room, Indianapolis stretched its advantage to as many as 17 on four different occasions including 67-50, 70-53, 75-58, and 80-63 while Truman never quite had the answer. The Greyhounds scored 27 of the second half's first 41 points and made nine of their 13 field goal attempts in that six-minute span including 7-for-9 from three-point land. After that, the closest the Bulldogs could get was seven like the final score after both benches had been emptied.

Next up, Truman can't look ahead to next week's GLVC Tournament just yet as No. 19 Lewis and its 10-game winning streak will be here on Saturday with tip set for 3 p.m.

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