Kirksville, MO – The Truman men’s basketball team rallied from eight points down in the second half to remain perfect on the season with a 65-59 victory over Missouri-St. Louis on Saturday night in Pershing Arena. Alex Henderson and Patrick Fandja each had a career high 19 points to lead the ‘Dogs.
The Bulldogs led by 10 with 6:51 left in the first half but the Tritons turned up the defensive pressure and closed the half on a 12-2 run to take a 32-30 lead into the locker room. The run extended into the second half as UMSL was up seven with 16:41 left and by their game-high eight points with 10:23 remaining.Henderson sparked the Bulldogs with three triples over the next four minutes with the last giving Truman the 52-50 lead with just over six minutes to play.
The two teams would go back and forth until Brandon Griffin connected on a pair of free throws with 2:14 left to put Truman in front for good. Patrick Fandja gave Truman a three-point lead with 1:31 to go off a steal by Griffin and an assist by Ethan Freeman. The Bulldogs would make 7-of-8 free throws down the streatch to pull away for their fourth win of the season. Freeman had six assists to go along with six points and 13 rebounds.
Missouri-St. Louis (1-1) top scores were Alex Jackson and Jeremy Brown, who each had 15 points. The Tritons did not have a turnover in the first half and had only six for the game. The Bulldogs will face Hannibal-LaGrange on Monday night in Pershing Arena to finish off an exhaustive schedule of five games in 10 days to start the season.
Courtesy Truman State University
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