KIRKSVILLE, Mo. - The Truman State Men will being Great Lakes Valley Conference action with a pair of home games following the Thanksgiving holiday. The Bulldogs will open up with McKendree on Saturday followed by the University of Indianapolis on Monday evening.Truman went 1-2 on their three games in four-day trip through Minnesota, Missouri and Kansas. The Bulldogs rallied from 10 down in the final three minutes to pick up a 64-63 win over Southwest Minnesota State last Saturday but then ran into #1 Northwest Missouri and fell to the Bearcats 92-47 on Sunday and on Tuesday night lost to Emporia (Kan.) State 63-42.McKendree has won their last two games after starting the season 0-2. They defeated Culver-Stockton (Mo.) 94-65 and Union (Tenn.) 69-58. The Bearcats were 14-12 last season and 9-11 in the GLVC and were picked sixth in the GLVC preseason coaches poll.The league's top team in the poll, Indianapolis, will visit Kirksville on Monday night after opening up league play at Quincy on Saturday. The Greyhounds are 4-0 with wins over Ohio Dominican, Lake Erie (Pa.), Grand Valley (Mich.) State and Northwood (Mich.) to start the season.
Against McKendree:
Truman is 8-1 against McKendree but split last year's matchups. The Bearcats snared a 74-73 win in Lebanon on January 8th last season as they grabbed the lead late and held on. Bryson Bulman led McKendree with 18 points and Brendon Gooch scored 17.
In Truman's 78-63 win in Kirksville, Cade McKnight and Elijah Hazekamp scored over 20 each and the Bulldogs led wire-to-wire.
Against Indianapolis:
The Greyhounds hold a 9-5 advantage over the Bulldogs. Truman won the regular season game 89-73 in Indianapolis behind 22 points from Masen Miller. While in the GLVC tournament, the Greyhounds kept the lead the entire second half and ended the Bulldogs tournament run 94-90 with 23 points from Cory Miller Jr. and 22 from Jakobie Robinson.
Bulldog Tidbits:
Elijah Hazekamp is eighth in the GLVC in scoring at 14.8 points and third in rebounding at 9.3 boards per game. Hazekamp has three double-doubles this season with a game-high 23 points in both contest against Findlay and Upper Iowa.
Hunter Strait will be playing in his 120th career game the next time he takes the court. He has averaged 25.6 minutes with eight points and three assists in those games.
Truman is the conference leader in free throw shooting at 86.7% with Hazekamp tied for the individual conference lead after making all 19 attempts this season. Strait is sixth with 13 of 14 makes.
Freshman Xavier Hall is tied for seventh in assists in the league at 3.67 per game.
Under Coach Horner, the Bulldogs are 56-20 in GLVC games played and 31-6 in conference home games.
Horner is three wins shy of catching Chris Foster for fifth place on the all-time wins chart at Truman State. Horner is sitting at 80 wins in five seasons.
Up Next:
The Bulldogs will be on the road for a pair of league games next weekend as they travel to Lewis (Ill.) on Thursday and Illinois Springfield on Saturday.
