KIRKSVILLE, Mo.—The Truman Men's Basketball team opened GLVC play last week as they hosted Missouri-St. Louis and Maryville. The Bulldogs won both games, downing the Tritons on an unforgettable buzzer beater by Masen Miller and then using a 20-0 first half run against Maryville to down the Saints.
Against UMSL, the Bulldogs got off to a slow start as the Tritons jumped out to a 26-13 lead in the last few minutes of the first half. Back to back threes from Cade McKnight and Sam Nissen cut it to seven, and from there Truman would go into halftime down five as Keaton Mitchell got a bucket in the waning seconds to make it 34-29. Truman continued to chip away and took their first lead since the opening two minutes of the game with 5:55 to go. After seesawing back and forth, the teams went to overtime tied at 64. In the extra session, Truman got five points on free throws and led 69-66. A three pointer by UMSL tied it up and then the stolen in-bounds pass for a layup put them ahead by two before Miller hit the game winner.
Two days later Maryville came to Pershing Arena and once more Truman found themselves down early on. It was 19-12 when Truman went off for 20 straight points. During the run, Miller hit three threes as part of his team high 17 points, Elijah Hazekamp hit a three and McKnight scored eight. MU fought back at the end of the half to cut it to six, but Hazekamp and Eric Northweather scored to put Truman back up ten heading into the break. In the second half Truman led by as many as 19, but a late run by Maryville cut it to six before three free throws by the Bulldogs closed the game out. Hunter Strait reached eight assists for the third time this season in the game.
The Bulldogs are second in the GLVC in scoring with 80.6 points per game, trailing only Southwest Baptist's 83.1. Truman leads the conference in field goal percentage at .499, and in free throw percentage at .837. Truman trails only SBU in three point percentage at .414, to the Bearcats .416. Truman also leads the GLVC in assists with 18.38 per game.
Player Notes
McKnight remains second in the GLVC with 20.9 points per game, which is tied for 37th nationally. He leads the conference in field goal percentage at .655, and he also leads in three point percentage with .565 (both among qualified players). He's also seventh in the GLVC from the foul line with a .851 shooting percentage from the charity stripe (among qualified players).
Miller leads the Bulldogs with 25 made threes and 294 minutes played. He's averaging 36.5 minutes a game, which is second in the GLVC and 19th nationally, and is third in the GLVC in threes made per game with 3.13.
Strait has three eight assist games this year, which is a career high. He is currently second in the GLVC with 4.9 assists per game, trailing only Mitch Ganote of Southwest Baptist. His career high in points came against Central Christian in the 2018 game when he scored 26.
Hazekamp is averaging 11.1 points per game, which is third on the team. He has two double-doubles this season, and leads the team with 6.8 rebounds per game. He ranks ninth in the GLVC in rebound average.
Northweather made his first career start against Maryville, scoring nine points and has now raised his scoring average to five points per game. He is third on the team with a .625 shooting percentage and third on the team in three point percentage at .444.
Mitchell leads the team with a .667 field goal percentage this year, going 22-33 from the floor. He's averaging 6.3 points per game, and is third on the team with four blocked shots.
Shearer played 14 minutes per game in the two games over the weekend, scoring eight points and picking up a rebound and a steal in those games.
Nissen played a season high 19 minutes in the win over UMSL, scoring three points and grabbing two rebounds. He also saw 12 minutes of action against Maryville and scored two points with one board.
Sam Lock seven points against UMSL in 11 minutes of action. He went 1-2 from downtown and 2-3 from the floor. He got a steal in each of the two games over the weekend, and dished out a career high three assists against Maryville.
Dylan Peeters remains third on the team with 6.3 rebounds per game, and is tied for the team lead with five blocked shots. He also has three steals on the season.
Series History with Central Christian College of the Bible: The two have met ten times, dating back to 2003. The Bulldogs have won all ten meetings, with the most recent meeting coming in 2018, a 118-47 win for Truman.
Look at the Saints: The NCCAA college from Moberly has begun their year 5-3, with wins over Union College (Neb.), Kansas Christian College, Spurgeon College, Oak Hills Christian College, and College of the Ozarks.
They have three players averaging double figures, with Jackson King and Rodrigo Nunez tied for the lead with 16 points per game. Trey Black also averages 15.6 points per game and leads the team with 8.8 rebounds per game and 4.8 assists per game.
Up Next: Truman will play one more game in December as they will host Grandview on the 29th and then at the turn of the calendar GLVC play will resume on January 2nd against Lindenwood.
