KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – Despite having one of its better shooting days of the season, Missouri S&T's men's basketball team struggled to slow down Truman State from long range Saturday afternoon as the Bulldogs downed the Miners 92-84 in a Great Lakes Valley Conference contest.
Truman (13-11, 10-6 GLVC) came into the game second in the GLVC with 10.6 three-pointers per game at a clip of nearly 40 percent from the beyond the arc and on Saturday, the Bulldogs went 14-of-27 from three-point range which included a couple of key three-pointers in the latter stages of the contest to hold off the Miners.
Despite trailing for the majority of the contest, the Miners (12-11, 6-10 GLVC) were able to stay on the heels of the Bulldogs all afternoon in a game in which they shot 52.5 percent from the floor. S&T scored the initial basket of the game, but fell behind when Kobi Williams hit a three-pointer on Truman's next trip down the floor and never seized the lead again.
The Bulldogs made a little burst just past the midway point of the opening half to go up by nine, then after S&T cut it down to five a couple of times, pushed their lead out to 12 on a basket by Trey Shearer at the 2:31 mark. The Miners did get the lead down to eight by the intermission, thanks to three-point baskets by
Alex Benassi (Lee's Summit, MO/Lee's Summit) and
Ikenna Okeke (Bolingbrook, IL/Romeoville) – who had 16 of his game-high 25 points in the opening half.
S&T carried that momentum into the second half, scoring the first six points and drew to within two after a lay-up by
Lovell Williams (Rogers, MN/Maple Grove). Truman halted that run on a Kobi Williams three and pushed the margin back out to as much as seven, only to see the Miners come up with an 8-2 burst to tie the score after a three-pointer by
Julien Smith (Fort Worth, TX/Northwest) with 12:10 remaining.
Shearer scored inside on the Bulldogs' next trip down the floor to put his team back in the lead and the margin grew to eight again after a trey from Casen Lawrence with 9:24 left. S&T responded by outscoring Truman 10-3 over the next 90 seconds and trimmed the lead to one when
Andrew Young (Ballwin, MO/Marquette) knocked down a three with just eight minutes to go.
The Miners had a chance to take the lead the next time they got the ball, but a missed shot led to a Kobi Williams three at the other end and S&T never had a possession the rest of the way with a chance to take the lead. S&T trailed 80-76 with just over four minutes to go, but Landon Eiland hit an open three-pointer to make it a seven-point game, then after a
Lovell Williams (Rogers, MN/Maple Grove) basket cut it to five, Shearer hit a contested three-pointer to make it an eight-point advantage again.
Besides the 25 from Okeke, the Miners also got 19 points from Young and 13 apiece from Froebe and
Lovell Williams (Rogers, MN/Maple Grove). S&T hit 10 three-pointers in the game itself, but also turned the ball over 17 times that the Bulldogs converted into 20 points.
Xavier Hall, who had a career-high 27 points in Truman's win Thursday over Maryville, had 22 to lead four Bulldogs in double figures. He was joined by Kobi Williams with 19, Brennan Lovette with 17 and Shearer with 13.
Missouri S&T will play its final two home games of the season next week, beginning with Thursday's 7:30 p.m. game against Drury at Gibson Arena.
