KIRKSVILLE, Mo. - Truman State University Men's basketball resumes GLVC play with a game against Indianapolis at home on January 3rd, and a trip to St. Louis to take on the UMSL Tritons on January 6th.

The Bulldogs are coming off an exhibition game at Division I Bradley, where the Braves came away with a 69-47 win, but the Bulldogs battled hard.

Truman State Men's basketball took a hard-fought 69-47 loss to the Bradley Braves from the Missouri Valley Conference on Thursday night.

The Bulldogs and Braves were tied 12-12 nearly halfway through the first-half before Bradley went into the break up by only six. Both teams traded buckets and the largest lead Bradley had was nine with 2:20 left.

Truman State cut the Braves lead to three at the 11:30 point after two Casen Lawrence free throws, making it a 45-42 game. Bradley eventually pulled away and overwhelmed the Bulldogs, winning by 22.

Casen Lawrence led Truman in scoring, dropping 11 on three 3-pointers along with two free throws. He also had two rebounds.

Landon Eiland was the second double-digit scorer to Truman, having 10 on 4-11 shooting. Eiland also had five boards and two blocks.

Joe Knutson led Truman in rebounds with six, and four Bulldogs had two assists.

As a team, Truman shot 16-48 (33.3%) from the field, and went 4-19 (21.1%) from three. The Bulldogs hit 11 of their 18 free throws.

Kobi Williams is Truman's leading scorer, averaging 12.3 points per game. The freshman has scored double-digit points in six games, including 23 against Avila on 11/19. Williams nearly had 20 again against Upper Iowa on 12/2, falling just short with 19 on 7-11 shooting and 4--6 from three. The St. Louis native has scored 10+ in five of the last seven games.

Veteran guard Trey Shearer has been steady scoring as well this season, averaging 11.4 with a 51% shooting percentage. The junior has been held to just 12, 7, and 8 points since his career-high 28 points against Upper Iowa on 12/2, but has still managed to be productive in other ways on the court.

Sophomore point guard Xavier Hall is having a great year, averaging the third-most points (11.1) and most assists (5.5) so far. Hall has scored 10+ points in his last five games, not including a career-high 25 points against Emporia State on 11/15. Xavier has been excellent passing as well, having 4+ assists in every game but one this year.

Brennan Lovette, another St. Louis native, is third in scoring for the Bulldogs with 10.6 points per game. Lovette is fifth on the team in minutes, but is extremely productive, leading the team in field goal percentage at 62%. He is effecient at the rim and behind arc as well, with a three point percentage of 52% on 25 attempts.

Redshirt sophomore Landon Eiland from Eldridge, Iowa is Truman's best rebounder with 5.0 per game, 1.4 boards better than Lovette in second.

For UINDY, they only have two players averaging double-digit points, but three other Greyhounds are close to the mark. Jesse Bingham leads the team with 15.7 on 46% shooting, and 6-7 Kendrick Tchoua is second with 10.1.

Paul Zilinskas is putting up 9.8 points per game, and Jarvis Walker is right behind with 9.6. David Ejah is the next closest Greyhounds, averaging 8.5 points.

Ejah may not be leading in points, but he has been great on the boards, grabbing 7.1 per game. Tchoua is the next closest with 4.6

The Greyhounds have multiple players who can pass the ball, with six players averaging 1.5+ assists per game. Jesse Bingham leads the way with 1.9.

Bingham scored a season-high 22 points twice this season against Saginaw Valley (11/16) and Lewis (12/9).

For the Tritons, they have three players over double-digits and three more that are close. Matt Enright leads the way with 12.8 per game, followed by Emanuel Prospere II with 11.2, and Mayson Quartlebaum with 10.0.

Terrell Kabala is nearly there with 9.9 points per game, and Trey Glover II plus Savon Wykle are both averaging 8+.

Glover II leads the squads in rebounds per game with 6.2, followed by Quartlebaum with 5.2.

Enright not only leads in points per game, but also in assists, averaging 3.2 a contest.

Mayson Quartlebaum scored a season-high 26 points against Michigan Tech on 11/18.

Following these two games to open 2024, the Bulldogs travel to Quincy and Illinois Springfield on January 11th and January 13th.