This past weekend the Truman State University men’s basketball team lost to both Grand Valley State University and Davenport University.
In the first half against GVSU, Truman scored 34 points to GVSU’s 42 points. The second half was a lot closer with Truman scoring 42 points, one less than GVSU, but in the end Truman fell by a score of 76-85.
Assistant coach Austin McBeth, who coached his first game against nationally ranked University of Findlay on Nov. 8, said he thought the team did better at shooting three-pointers in the past this weekend than it has previously, however it’s not where it needs to be.
On Saturday the Bulldogs were down by six after the first half against Davenport University. The team continued to lag behind in the second half, losing 75-85.
McBeth said the biggest difference between these past two games was the way the team fought back against GVSU.
“The last four minutes of the first half and probably the first six or seven minutes of the second half was probably the best basketball I’ve seen us play the entire season,” McBeth said.
McBeth said the team didn’t have the same kind of willingness and ability to fight at Davenport University than they did at GVSU.
McBeth said guards Brodric Thomas and Hunter Strait stood out in the weekend games.
“I think there’s a lot to learn from last weekend,” Thomas said. “We keep showing glimpses of how great we really can be, but we just need to keep it consistent and bring the same mentality every game for the whole game.”
McBeth also said he thought Strait made some big time shots against Grand Valley State University and made some tough shots against Davenport University when the team needed him to.
Strait said he thinks the team played a good 30 minutes at Davenport University, but during the last ten minutes of the game the team had a lot of mental lapses that allowed the other team to pull away from them.
The Bulldogs’ record for the season is now 1-3. McBeth said he thinks the season so far is underwhelming, but not a failure.
“I think that we’re still a good team and I think that we have the potential to do some really good things come conference play but it’s just been disappointing not necessarily because our record is 1-3 … but just because I think that we had a very good chance to beat Cedarville,” said McBeth.
McBeth said he’s hoping with the team’s three losses so far in the season that the players don’t quit and instead learn from them. He said at the end of the day the team gets better when they play really tough teams.
Tonight, the Bulldogs play against Missouri Southern State University, who are ranked tenth in the country.
Leading up to tonight’s game, McBeth said he thinks for him this week is about giving the team some encouragement and a boost to get locked back in and move forward with a positive mindset.