Despite getting out to a 13-8 lead through the first nine minutes, the Truman men’s basketball team ended on the wrong side of a 24-3 run and could never recover on the way to a 73-45 loss at Central Missouri on Wednesday night.
Senior Ethan Freeman scored nine of Truman’s first 13 points to give the Bulldogs (5-10, 3-8 MIAA) a five-point edge at the 11:52 mark of the first half.
But the Mule bench came on and sparked UCM (10-7, 5-6 MIAA) over the next eight minutes, scoring 24 of the next 27 points to build a 32-16 lead with three and a half minutes to go before the half.
Despite getting a handful of chances to get the margin under ten before the intermission, the ’Dogs went into halftime down, 34-21, and the Mules took just less than ten minutes out of the gate to build a 61-31 lead.
The 45 points scored by Truman marked the fewest this season, with the previous low coming at Fort Hays State – a 57-point effort on Jan. 3.
The output was the lowest since 82-45 setback last season on Feb. 11 – also at Fort Hays State.
Freeman’s 12 points led the Bulldogs, as the conference’s rebounding leader pulled down four.
Senior Alex Henderson also reached double-figures with ten points and led the ’Dogs with three assists.
Truman returns to action this weekend to start the second half of conference play by heading to No. 14 Missouri Southern for a 3:00 pm tipoff.
The Lions are 10-1 in the MIAA and hold a one-game lead in the conference standings.
Courtesy Truman State University
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