–After two one point showdowns last season that come down to the last shot, the Truman State Men’s Basketball team was happy to not have this meeting with #9 Missouri-St. Louis come down to the last shot. The Bulldogs took care of business with an 81-69 win as Cade McKnight led the way with 26 points, one off his career high, and freshman Masen Miller scored a season high 25. Miller drained seven triples, the most for the Bulldogs since Brodric Thomas drained seven in the regular season finale at Missouri S&T last season.
Truman got off to a fast start, with a 14-6 run to start the game. Miller scored eight of those points with two threes and a fast break layup. After two free throws by Cade McKnight gave the Bulldogs a 5-4 lead at the 17:18 mark of the first half, Truman would not trail again for the rest of the half. Truman was simply on fire in the first half, shooting 13-21 from the field (61.72%) and 8-12 from beyond the arc (66.67%). In addition, Truman went 7-7 from the line in the half.
The Bulldogs never trailed in the second half, extending their lead to as many as 17. At the 9:05 mark McKnight put Truman up by double digits and the Bulldogs would hold a double digit lead the rest of the game.
With six assists, Turner Scott now moves into a tie with Chip Sodemann for sixth place all-time in assists with 322. He passed Banks Estridge and Jason Reinberg. With 12 points Scott was third on the team. Dylan Peeters reached double digit rebounds for the third straight game with ten and Elijah Hazekamp chipped in eight points and seven boards.
Overall Truman shot 56% for the game (28-50), and 12-23 (52.6%) from downtown. The Bulldogs only missed once from the free throw line (13-14).
The Bulldogs will be back in action Tuesday in Terra Haute, Indiana for an exhibition game against Indiana State at 4 CT. The next regular season game will be at Lindenwood next Saturday at 3:30 PM.