QUINCY, Ill.—The Truman Men's Basketball team shot lights out on Saturday afternoon as they took down Findlay in the GLVC/G-MAC Challenge 90-61. Cade McKnight led the Bulldogs with 27 points, while Elijah Hazekamp and Dylan Peeters both had double-doubles with Peeters grabbing 11 boards with 13 points and Hazekamp scoring 11 and grabbing 11 rebounds. Sam Nissen also set a new career high with 11 points off the bench.
The first few minutes of the game were pretty tight, as McKnight got the first basket of the game with a three to put Truman up early, Hunter Strait hit another one and the hot start ensured Truman would never trail in the game. It was 9-7 with 16:20 left to go in the first half, but from there Truman went on a 9-0 run with Hazekamp scoring first and then capping the run with a three pointer for the first double digit margin of the game. Later UF had cut the Truman lead down to seven when Nissen hit the first of his three pointers to go back up by ten at 28-18 with 9:16 left in the half. The Bulldogs led by double digits most of the rest of the half, and at the intermission were up ten points at 43-33.
Over the first few minutes of the second half the teams traded buckets, then a three point play from Cade McKnight put the Bulldogs back up 13, answered with a three from the Oilers. With the score now 50-40, Truman went on an 11-0 run with a three pointer from Hunter Strait and eight straight points from McKnight; which expanded the Truman lead to 21 at 61-40. Later on an 8-0 run with treys from Strait and Nissen and a layup from Keaton Mitchell gave Truman their largest lead at 24 points (71-47). With four minutes to go, it was 81-61 Bulldogs and Truman reeled off the last nine points with Hazekamp hitting two foul shots, McKnight getting a layup and Eric Northweather scoring the last five on a layup and three pointer.
The Bulldogs had a well balanced win with 22 bench points, 24 second chance points and 42 points in the paint. Hazekamp and Masen Miller tied for the team lead with five assists, Hazekamp and Peeters tied for the lead with 11 boards and McKnight led with 27 points.
After a 2-0 start to the season, the Bulldogs will be back in action this coming week in Joplin as they take on Pittsburg State and Missouri Southern this coming Friday and Saturday.
