Southern Illinois News

Men's Basketball Posts First-Ever Win at Truman State Behind Strong Second-Half Effort in Saturday's GLVC Opener

The McKendree University men's basketball put four players in double figures in Saturday's Great Lakes Valley Conference opener here against Truman State en route to posting a hard-fought 73-68 win over the Bulldogs at Pershing Arena.
 
Saturday's win the third consecutive for the Bearcats as they improved to 3-2 overall and 1-0 in the GLVC, while Truman State dropped its third straight game and fell to 3-4 overall and 0-1 in the league.
 
Along with winning its third consecutive game, McKendree made history as it earned its first ever win over Truman State in Kirksville as McKendree is now 1-4 all-time in Kirksville with Saturday's victory.
 
"First of all, Truman is an excellent team. They (Truman) really challenged us today and we will get a lot better from the film of this one. Second, that is a great effort by our guys to go on the road and leave with a win," McKendree head coach George Suggs said.
 
McKendree's win was keyed from a strong half performance as the Bearcats outscored Truman, 44-39 after halftime after the two teams were tied at 29 at halftime.
 
Senior guards Bryson Bultman (Nashville, Ill./Nashville) and Eric Powell II (Lexington, Ky./Asbury University) paced the Bearcats offensively with 17 points each, while junior forward Milos Vicentic (Belgrade, Serbia/OKK Belgrade) had 15 points and sophomore forward Caleb Zurliene (Aviston, Ill./Purdue Northwest) recorded his first double-double as a Bearcat as he scored 11 points and pulled down 12 rebounds.
 
Bultman, who pushed his career scoring total to 1,147 points, scored 15 of those 17 points in the second half to aid in McKendree's strong second half of play. Vicentic and Zurliene combined to score nine and seven points in the second half. Those three players combined for 31 of McKendree's 44 second-half points.
 
Suggs credited Saturday's win due to all the time the players put into preparing for this game.
 
""These players deserve all the credit. All the time they put in, from practicing early on Thanksgiving morning to getting on the bus and making the trip up here, all way to the opening tip, they showed tremendous focus on getting a win today. They deserved to see this success," added Suggs, who is 17-14 in his second season as McKendree's coach.
 
The Bearcats opened the second half on an 11-2 run to turn a 29-all tie at the half into a 40-31 lead just two-plus minutes into the half. Bultman scored seven of McKendree's 11 points during the run.
 
Truman, though, responded with a 19-9 run over the next seven minutes to take a 50-49 lead. The run began with a basket from Hunter Strait and capped by seven straight points from Xavier Hall, who scored 12 points for the Bulldogs.
 
McKendree once again responded with an 8-0 run that began with a four-point play Bultman after he was fouled on a made 3-pointer to give the Bearcats a 53-50 lead.
 
The Bulldogs, who advanced to the NCAA Midwest Regional Tournament last season, wouldn't go away as they scored nine of the next 11 points to retie the game at 59 with 4:15 left in the game. The run was aided by three consecutive treys (two from Strait and the other from Elijah Hazekamp) from the Bulldogs.
 
That would mark the final of five ties in the game as the Bearcats reeled off 12 of the next 15 points to push its lead to 70-62 with 52 seconds left. The run began with basket from senior guard Aleksandar Davitkov (Belgrade, Serbia/Partizan) and capped by a trey from Powell II.
 
Hazekamp would drill his sixth and final trey of the game eight seconds later to pull the Bulldogs within 70-65 with 44 seconds remaining, but two free throws by Davitkov with 22 seconds gave the Bearcats a 72-65 lead. Hazekamp would make three straight free throws after getting fouled on a 3-point attempt with 14 seconds left, before Powell II capped the scoring by making 1-of-2 free throws with two seconds remaining.
 
Hazekamp paced Truman with 23 points and added 11 rebounds, while Strait tallied 15 points to go along with Hall's12 points.
 
McKendree finished the game shooting 50 percent from the field and 39 percent (9-for-23) from the 3-point line, while going 14-for-19 (73.7 percent) from the free throw line.
 
Meanwhile, Truman shot 42 percent from the field and made 14 treys as they shot 44 percent (14-for-32) from the 3-point line in the loss. The Bulldogs were just 4-for-8 (50 percent) from the free throw line.
 
The Bearcats held a 35-30 edge on the boards, but lost the turnover battle, 13-11.
 
Both teams blocked four shots and had 14 assists each in the game.
 
Powell II scored the first points of the game on his trey just 32 seconds into the game, but Hazekamp would make two straight treys in the opening two minutes to key a Truman a 8-4 run in the opening six-plus minutes to take an 8-7 lead.
 
The Bearcats used a 9-0 run keyed by two treys from Powell II and another trey from sophomore forward Hayden Meakes (Adelaide, Australia/Adams State) to take a 16-8 lead with 12:24 left in the opening half.
 
Truman would answer back with a 12-4 run to tie the game at 20-all with 6:15 left in the half. The two teams would each close the opening half by scoring nine points each to force a 29-all tie at halftime.
 
The Bearcats will look to make it four straight wins as they conclude its three-game road trip on Monday, Nov. 28 with a 7:30 p.m. GLVC contest in Liberty, Mo., against William Jewell College (2-5 overall, 0-1 GLVC), who suffered a 59-51 home loss in its GLVC opener Saturday to Maryville University. 

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