ROLLA, Mo. – Playing without its top two scorers in the lineup, Missouri S&T's men's basketball team hung in with Truman State Thursday night but was unable to get over the hump as the Bulldogs left Gibson Arena with a 70-65 Great Lakes Valley Conference victory.

The Bulldogs (11-10, 6-5 GLVC) led by 15 with just under nine minutes to play, but the Miners (3-15, 1-9 GLVC ) were able to claw back and got it down to a one possession game in the final minute before Truman was able to seal the win at the free throw line.

Both teams struggled for points over the first 15 minutes of the contest, during which time S&T held a pair of three-point leads.  The last of those advantages came at the 6:52 mark following a basket by Romain Louiserre (La Ferte Alais, France/Fredrick Fays), but the Bulldogs ran off 12 straight points to take a nine-point lead before a basket by Mitch Fairless (St. Charles, MO/Duchesne) stopped the run.

Truman would lead by 12 in the opening half and took a nine-point lead to the intermission before extending it to 15 in the early stages of the second half.  S&T cut that lead down to six with a 9-0 run – with five of the points coming from Jalen Myers (Shorewood, IL/Minooka) – but the Bulldogs answered back by outscoring the Miners 13-4 over the next three-plus minutes to restore their 15-point margin.

The Miners were still down by double figures with over five minutes remaining, but a 7-0 run buoyed by a pair of conventional three-point plays by Dulan Scott (Chicago, IL/Farragut Academy) and Fairless trimmed the lead to five with 4:25 to play.  Truman got its lead back to nine with 2:16 remaining, but S&T outscored the Bulldogs 9-3 over the next 1:50 and got the lead down to three on another three-point play by Fairless with 26 seconds to go.

After the Bulldogs hit three of four at the free throw line to double the lead, Brooks Gerrity (Chesterfield, MO/Marquette) drained a three out of the corner to cut that margin back to three with eight seconds to play.  However, Brodric Thomas ended the Miner hopes of a complete comeback by making a pair at the line one second later.

The Miners – who were playing with Jordan Newt (San Francisco, CA/Malibu) and CJ Hedgepeth (Evansville, IN/Harrison), their top two scorers on the season – shot only 36.1 percent from the field and made only four-of-17 from three-point range.  They did get 16 points from Scott, while Myers had 15 as did Fairless, who recorded his first career double-double with career highs in points and rebounds as he finished with 11.

Truman's Cade McKnight led all scorers with 19 points, while Thomas and Taurin Hughes added 16 apiece as the Bulldogs made 43.1 percent of their shots from the floor that included eight from three-point range.

Missouri S&T returns to action Saturday as it hosts Quincy in a 3 p.m. contest at Gibson Arena.  The Hawks dropped to 8-13 and 2-9 in the GLVC following an 86-59 loss Thursday at Drury.