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For the second time in just three days, the Truman men used a big rally in the second half to claw back into a road contest.

However, on Monday night, a late blitz by the 7th-seeded Pittsburg State Gorillas proved too much as the Bulldog men’s basketball team fell 70-62 in the opening round of the 2013 MIAA tournament.

The 10th-seeded Bulldogs (10-17) and Gorillas were tied at 61 with just more than a minute to play, but PSU (18-9) closed the game on a 9-1 run in the final 61 seconds to advance to the MIAA quarterfinals on Thursday evening against No. 2 seed Central Missouri in Kansas City.

The Bulldogs played catch-up throughout much of the first half, as the Gorillas led by as many as six in a defensive battle between the two squads.

Pitt State would carry a 27-25 lead into the break on a JaVon McGee tip-in with one second to play in a half that saw the teams combine to shoot just 25 percent from the floor.

An exchanging of rallies played out in the opening minutes of the second stanza, as the Gorillas opened the half on a 6-0 spurt before Truman scored five in a row to pull within one at 33-32.

 Pitt then went on a 9-0 tear before the Bulldogs went to work – outscoring the Gorillas 20-7 during a five-plus minute stretch to take a 55-51 lead with 8:10 to play.

A nearly four-minute offensive drought then plagued both teams, as a Seth Jackson (St. Louis, Mo., CBC) free throw kept the ’Dogs in front by two, 56-54, at the 4:25 mark, before PSU’s Kaleb Porter hit a three-pointer with 4:09 to go.

A quick jumper on the other end by Jackson put the ’Dogs back on top, and, after Cory Myers (Ankeny, Iowa, Ankeny) hit one of two free throws on the next possession, the Bulldogs led 59-57 with 3:14 to play.

After the Gorillas got back-to-back layups with 1:38 on the clock to take a two-point lead, Mike Carlson (Superior, Wis., Marshall) scored in the lane to knot the score at 61-all with 1:19 to go.

However, the Gorillas took over from there, as, following a PSU layup and a Jackson free throw,

Pitt got a three-pointer from Rico Pierrevilus – a 22% three-point shooter coming into the night – with just 17 seconds to play to take a 66-62 lead.

 Two Bulldog turnovers and two Gorilla dunks later, Pitt State escaped with a deceiving eight-point victory in a game that featured eight ties and 15 lead changes.

Carlson finished with 22 points and 13 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the season, while Jackson added 11 points, six rebounds and four assists.

 Tom Norton (Bloomington, Ill., Central Catholic), in his final game as a Bulldog, capped his career with a 10-point night, grabbing four rebounds and adding a steal in 29 minutes of work.

Norton finished his career with 1,114 points (16th all-time) and 263 career three-pointers (2nd all-time).

Patrick Burmester (DeWitt, Iowa, Central) added eight points on four-of-four shooting, as Truman shot 37% overall from the field, 26% (5-of-19) from three-point range and 78% (21-of-27) from the free throw line.

The Bulldogs hung in with one of the MIAA’s top rebounding teams, only getting out-boarded by one (36-35) but did commit 20 turnovers leading to 23 Gorilla points.

Norton and Matt Patterson (Shelbina, Mo., South Shelby) comprised the 2013 Bulldog senior class, combining to play in 163 games wearing the purple and white.

Truman will return four starters next season in its inaugural year in the Great Lakes Valley Conference, beginning in November 2013.

Courtesy Truman State University