KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – The Truman Men's Basketball team will be back on the floor Thursday night as they head to the Gateway City for two rematches: first against UMSL Thursday night then against Lindenwood on Saturday afternoon.
The Bulldogs got back on track last week with a 81-72 win at Missouri S&T, but had two games canceled, at Maryville and at home against Drury; canceled.
Truman is now 11-3 on the season, and 5-1 in GLVC play. The Bulldogs remain the only team ranked in the NABC top 25 at number 21, maintaining their ranking from last week. Southwest Baptist also received a vote.
In December the Tritons came to Kirksville and Truman rebounded after losing their previous two games—to NW Missouri State and Upper Iowa. Masen Miller hit a game winning three from half court to lift Truman 72-71 over the Tritons. It was the fourth straight win in the series for the Bulldogs—dating back to 2020 when Truman downed UMSL in the regular season, by the same score of 72-71, and then again in the GLVC title game.
Saturday the Bulldogs go to Lindenwood for a second matchup with the Lions. The Bulldogs defeated the Lions 74-56 in Pershing Arena earlier this season, Elijah Hazekamp led the way for the Bulldogs with 18 points and seven rebounds, while Hunter Strait dished out nine assists.
The Bulldogs have leapfrogged Southwest Baptist in points per game with 81.4 and are now tops in the GLVC. Furthermore, the Bulldogs are also third in scoring margin at +9.9. Truman is also tied for first in field goal percentage with SBU at .497 and second in three point percentage at .412; behind only Lewis. With 10.7 made threes per game, the Bulldogs lead the GLVC in treys per game and lead the GLVC in shooting percentage from the free throw line at .805.
About the Players:
Cade McKnight remains second in the GLVC in points per game at 19.6, ahead of Lindenwood's Jacoby Ross—who comes in at third at 19.3. Both are chasing Julien Smith of Missouri S&T who leads the conference with 19.8 ppg. In addition to Ross, Lindenwood's Romelo Burrell is sixth in the GLVC with 16.8 ppg. Thursday night the Bulldogs will see the GLVC's fifth leading scorer, Marty Jackson, who averages 16.9 ppg. McKnight continues to lead the GLVC in field goal percentage at .621 and is third on the Bulldogs with six rebounds per game.
Masen Miller continues to be the top marksman in the GLVC with 3.5 makes from downtown per game and shooting at .450 clip from beyond the arc. He also came two points short of matching his career high with 23 points in Rolla last Thursday against the Miners. Miller also remains sixth in the GLVC in minutes per game with 34.4, and also leads the GLVC in assist to turnover ratio at 3:1.
Hunter Strait has taken over as the top distributor not only for the Bulldogs this season but also in the GLVC—he is averaging 5.6 assists per game; which is now far ahead of SBU's Mitch Ganote who is second at 4.9. Strait is also tied for 23rd in the conference in minutes per game at 29.4, which is tied with Elijah Hazekamp and Ganote.
Hazekamp has reached double figures in five straight games, and notched his third double-double of the season with 10 points and 11 boards against Missouri S&T. He is also top ten in the GLVC in rebounds with 6.9 per game—which is 8th and just behind Dylan Peeters and his 7.0.
Peeters is 7th in the GLVC in boards with 7.0. He's recorded four double-doubles this season, including two in a week against Quincy (12 points, ten rebounds) and McKendree (13 points, 11 boards); nearly making it three straight double-doubles against Missouri S&T—but he fell one board short.
Eric Northweather has made four starts this season, and earlier this season against Lindenwood he set a new career high with 18 points. He's blocked 15 shots this season, which puts him 9th in the GLVC—and set a new career high with three at Quincy. He also tied his career high with six boards at Missouri S&T this past week.
Trey Shearer is averaging 14.6 minutes per game, and reached double figures for the second time this season with 11 at McKendree. He set a new career high against the Bearcats with five field goals made. He's shooting .426 from the field this year with .375 from three point range and .846 from the foul line.
Keaton Mitchell set a new career high with 15 points in the victory over Lindenwood earlier this month, and also recorded an assist and a blocked shot. In 19 minutes he made seven field goals, which was a career high. He has reached double figures six times this year.
Sam Nissen is averaging 2.2 points per game off the bench this season; including a career high 11 against Findlay—hitting three of three triples in the game. He's hit seven times from downtown this year. He set a career high at the time with 19 minutes played against UMSL in December.
Sam Lock has played in 12 games this season, averaging 7.6 minutes per game. He's 14-28 from the field, shooting 50% and made nine three pointers. He scored seven points against UMSL in the first meeting. For the year he's averaging 3.2 points and 1.1 rebounds per game.
Josh Ollendieck has appeared in eight games this season, averaging 4.3 minutes per game. He played four minutes in the first matchup with Lindenwood. Devin Fields has been in four games this year and made three shots from downtown.
Series History w/UMSL: The Bulldogs have squared off with the Tritons 47 times over the years, with the first meeting coming in 1970. UMSL has a 27-20 edge overall, but the Bulldogs have taken the last four in the series. Three of them have been one point nail biters—two regular season meetings that ended 72-71 in 2021 and 2019, and a 53-52 thriller in the 2020 GLVC Championship Game. As GLVC opponents Truman leads 8-5.
About the Tritons: Once again the Bulldogs and Tritons are fighting it out at the top of the GLVC, with the Tritons currently holding an identical 11-3 record overall but are 5-2 in the GLVC; one half game behind the Bulldogs. After falling in Pershing, the Tritons won five straight before stumbling against Illinois Springfield. They got back in the win column with a win over UIndy on Monday. Marty Jackson leads the team with 16.9 points per game and 6.4 rebounds per game. Yaakema Rose is second with 12.6 points per game and leads the team with over three assists per game.
Series History w/Lindenwood: The teams met twice in the 80's, with one meeting being forfeited to the Bulldogs. Overall, it gives Truman a 6-3 edge all-time. Truman has taken the last four games in the series, including three by double digits.
About the Lions: Three Lions average double figures with Jacoby Ross at 19.3, Romelo Burrell at 16.8 and Kevin Caldwell at 14.2. Burrell is also one of the top five rebounders in the GVLC with 8.1 per game, and has racked up 24 blocked shots. After a 5-2 start to the season, the Lions have lost seven of their last eight—with their lone win coming over Quincy last Saturday.
Up Next: After these two games, the Bulldogs will return to the friendly confines of Pershing Arena for three games in five days as they take on Southern Indiana on the 27th, McKendree on the 29th and then have a rescheduled home game against Lewis on the 31st.
