Senior Ethan Freeman and freshman Isaac Gardner poured in 15 points apiece, and sophomore Tom Norton added 14, but the Truman men’s basketball team couldn’t overtake a pesky Washburn bunch down the stretch, falling 72-61 in WU’s Lee Arena on Monday night.
The Bulldogs (6-16, 4-14 MIAA) took a 50-49 lead off a Norton three-ball with 6:58 to play in the game but turned the ball over on their next two possessions. Washburn’s Jadarren Mumpfield then drained a triple with a little more than five minutes to play to give the Ichabods (15-7, 12-6 MIAA) a lead they would not relinquish down the stretch before extending the margin late from the free throw line.
Both teams came out sluggish in the first half, combining to shoot less than 33% from the field in a 27-20 WU half time edge. The Bulldogs hit just 30% of their field goals in the first 20 minutes but picked it up in the second half, shooting 54%, to finish the game 22-for-53 (42%) from the floor. Truman dropped nine three-pointers – headlined by Norton’s four and Gardner’s three – to just three for WU, but the ’Bods scored seven more from the free throw line and shot 43% from the field on nine more attempts to pull off a season split.
Freeman narrowly missed his 11th double-double of the season by adding nine rebounds to his 15 points, and he tied for the game-high with fellow senior Alex Henderson by distributing five assists. Henderson, the team’s leading scorer entering the night, scored just three, but he added a game-high three steals. Freshman Pat Sodemann came off the bench to score seven points and pull down four rebounds.
Logan Stutz, the MIAA’s leading scorer, led all players with 24 points and coupled that with ten rebounds for a double-double.