KIRKSVILLE, Mo.—In the waning seconds of overtime with the game tied at 69, the Truman Men's Basketball team looked for a play to win the game with 3.3 seconds left. The in bounds pass was interecepted by the Tritons and taken in for a layup with .6 left on the clock. Down 71-69, Truman had one last chance. Elijah Hazekamp found Masen Miller just beyond the midcourt stripe and Miller launched it as time expired. The ball hit nothing but net as Truman came away with a dramatic victory 72-71 over Missouri-St. Louis.
The first half was uneven for the Bulldogs, as UMSL jumped out to a 13-6 lead. Hazekamp hit two three pointers, then with 11:51 left in the half hit another three to cut the UMSL lead to four. But the Bulldogs slow start continued and with 6:47 left Truman found themselves down 26-13. From there, Cade McKnight and Sam Nissen hit back to back threes to pull Truman back within seven, and from there Truman just hung around as they would go to intermission trailing 34-29 after Keaton Mitchell hit a bucket at the end of the half to bring Truman within five.
McKnight opened the second half with a three pointer, and from there it was game on. UMSL held a slight lead for most of the half, it wasn't until 5:55 was left that two free throws from McKnight gave Truman their first lead of the game since there was 18:24 left in the first half at 56-55. UMSL answered with five straight to go up 60-56, but from there a layup by Sam Lock and a three from Miller put Truman back on top 61-60 with 3:28 remaining.
With the scored tied at 61 with 2:40 to go, a three point play from McKnight made it 64-61, and from there Jose Grubbs made 1-2 free throws at 1:29 and then made a layup to tie the game with five seconds left. Miller was called for a foul on the shot which gave UMSL the chance to go ahead. But the shot was too strong and collected by Nissen who drove the length of the floor but couldn't get a buzzer beater to go down. We went to overtime tied at 64.
UMSL got the first two points of the extra frame from the line, but with 3:47 to go McKnight drew a shooting foul from beyond the arc to get three foul shots, all of which he made to put Truman up 67-66. The pace slowed through the middle of the overtime session, with the next points not coming until just 18 seconds remained. Hunter Strait hit two foul shots to make it 69-66. With just over three seconds left, UMSL's Yaakema Rose hit a three point shot to tie it up at 69. On the next in bound pass, Jose Grubbs got the steal and layup for the Tritons, which set the stage for Miller to nail the buzzer beater to lift the Bulldogs.
McKnight led the Bulldogs with 24 points, while Hazekamp had a double-double with 16 points and 14 rebounds (a team high). Miller dished out five assists to lead the team.
Truman will be back in action on Saturday afternoon as they host Maryville at 3:00 p.m.
