QUINCY, Ill.—The Truman Men's Basketball team had another dramatic finish in a GLVC game on Tuesday night as they defeated the Quincy Hawks 73-72, with Hunter Strait's bucket with ten seconds left proving to be the game winner. Truman trailed by nine with 6:15 left in the game, but ended the game on a 13-3 run to take home the win and remain perfect in conference play.
Masen Miller led the team with 23 points, just two shy of his career high. Dylan Peeters got a double-double with 12 points and ten rebounds (team high) and Sam Nissen made his first career start tonight. GLVC Player of the Week Elijah Hazekamp scored 14 and Strait scored 11, with Eric Northweather scoring seven off the bench and Sam Lock scoring six. Strait and Miller tied with six assists each, with Miller setting a new career high; while Northweather also set a new career best with three blocks.
Truman got off to a quick start, leading 5-3 early on after a three pointer by Miller. The Hawks briefly tied the game at seven before Miller and Hazekamp hit back to back threes to put Truman back in the lead. The first half was tightly contested throughout, but as the half went on Quincy would lead by as many as nine points; but a three by Miller with eight seconds before half brought it back to a 42-36 Hawks lead going into half.
A dunk from Peeters and a three from Miller put Truman within one right out of the gates in the second half. But Quincy answered with eight straight to go back up by nine. A couple of buckets from Hazekamp and a three from Miller brought Truman back within four at 52-48 with 14:29 left in the game. Lock made a three pointer with 8:36 to go, but Truman would not get back on the board until five minutes remained when Northweather got a layup to pull back within seven at 69-62. Baskets from Hazekamp and Northweather made it a one possession game at 69-66 with three minutes to go. Nate Shockey went 1-2 from the line for Quincy, then a layup from Peeters made it a two point game with 2:28 to go. Shockey hit two foul shots with 1:22 to go to make it 72-68, but from there Strait made a layup and then the go ahead three pointer to put the Bulldogs ahead. Quincy had one final chance but Peeters came up with a big block on the final shot to seal the win.
The busy week for the Bulldogs will continue on Thursday night as they host Lewis at home, with a 7:30 tip off.
