Feb. 6, 2010 – The Truman Men’s Basketball team was defeated by the Southwest Baptist Bearcats by a score of 73-65 on Saturday in Bolivar. The Bulldogs were led by Vesko Filchev’s 17 points and 10 rebounds.
Truman (4-18; 2-13 MIAA) trimmed an SBU (19-5; 10-4 MIAA) 13-point halftime lead down to just four after an 11-2 run to start the second half.
Ethan Freeman scored the first four out of the locker room and Alex Henderson capped off the run with a three-pointer to pull Truman to within four at 37-33.
Kurtis Koenig righted the Bearcat ship with a basket that put SBU up 39-33 at the 15:18 mark.
The teams then went nearly two minutes without scoring as the Bulldogs missed on three field goal attempts as the Bearcats turned the ball over twice.
Filchev got whistled for an offensive foul and Tomas Brock converted on a pair of technical foul shots to put the margin back to double-digits.
Truman reeled in the Bearcats again and got as close as five at the 8:10 mark but Ryan Dougherty made one of his four three-pointers on the game to give SBU some breathing room.
Filchev answered right back with a conventional three-point play while SBU’s freshman Ivan Cropotov scored the Bearcats next four points inside to make it a nine-point lead with 6:33 left.
Truman cut it to within six on three more occasions, the last being at the 36 second mark but could not come up with a late steal to creep even closer.
The Bulldogs shot 29% in the first half but responded in the second to shoot 51% from the floor and made 10-of-13 from the foul line.
Southwest Baptist dominated on the boards with a 47 to 25 advantage and 14 offensive rebounds. The Bearcats made just four three-pointers on the day but were 19-of-23 at the charity stripe.
Dougherty led all scorers with 18 points followed by Brock’s 17 for the Bearcats while Truman had Filchev with 17 and Stefan Garrison with 15.
Truman will play at nationally ranked