KIRKSVILLE, Mo.—A battle between the top two teams in the GLVC lived up to its billing today as the Truman Men's Basketball team welcomed the Missouri-St. Louis Tritons to Pershing Arena. The teams both entered the day at 11-2 in conference play at the start of the day, and only one could leave on top. It came down to the final possession, Turner Scott drew a foul and made one of two free throws to put the Bulldogs up 72-71 with .5 seconds left and Truman shut the door to preserve the win.
Brodric Thomas led the way for the Bulldogs with 27 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists—just two assists away from a triple double. He tied his career high in boards and went 15-15 from the foul line, which set a new career high in free throws made.
Coming out of the gate, it was all Tritons. Yaakema Rose and Jose Grubbs each made three pointers that barely moved the net as they jumped out to an 8-2 lead in the first 2:17 of the game. Truman responded with a trey from Thomas and a layup from Cade McKnight to pull back within one. Another three made it 11-7 UMSL, but Turner Scott got on the board and then Thomas tied the game with a layup with 11:14 left in the half.
Truman took their first lead with 9:38 to go as Thomas drained his second three of the game. From there, Truman didn't trail the rest of the half. The game would be tied at 20 and then at 23; from there Truman went on a 13-0 run to take a commanding lead in the final minute. During this run, Thomas had nine points—all from the foul line. Ultimately the Bulldogs took a 37-25 lead into intermission.
At the start of the second half, Hunter Strait drained a three to give Truman a 40-27 lead, but four straight got UMSL back within single digits at 40-31. The Bulldogs got two straight baskets to push the lead back to 13, for the middle part of the second half the pattern repeated where UMSL would cut the lead to single digits and Truman would push it back up to double.
With 7:07 to go, Alex McQuinn put Truman up ten with a layup. From there a basket from Jose Grubbs and a three from Shane Wissink cut the Truman lead to five with six minutes to go. A 5-1 run from Truman got the lead back up to nine at 65-56 with 3:20 left, and held a comfortable lead until Wissink made another three with 1:14 left to cut the Truman lead to 71-66. After a Truman timeout, Wissink drained another three and Jason Towery made a jumper with 13 seconds left to tie the game at 71. An 8-0 run tied the game up. Truman had one last possession to get a winner. Scott muffed the ball on the perimeter with five seconds left but got it back and drove into the lane where he was fouled. After missing the first Scott drained the second foul shot. A desperation attempt from half court went wide and Truman prevailed.
With this win, the Bulldogs sit alone atop the GLVC at 12-2. They embark on their most challenging road trip of the season as they head to current #12 Bellarmine, Indianapolis and then Drury.
