Joplin, Mo. - The Missouri Southern basketball team out scored Truman 54-29 in the second half, en-route to an 84-55 win tonight over the visiting Bulldogs in the MIAA opener for both teams.

Southern (6-0, 1-0 MIAA) nearly scored as many points tonight in the second half (54) as they scored in the entire game (57) the last time these two teams met. Truman (1-4, 0-1 MIAA) shot just 29 percent in the second half, while the Lions hit 58 percent of their shots.

Jason Adams had another season-high with 26 points on 9-19 shooting from the field and a perfect 8-8 from the free-throw line. He added eight blocks, three assists and five steals. Keane Thomann was the only other Lion in double figures, as the sophomore scored 11 and blocked a career-high four shots.

After a 30 percent shooting performance in the first half, the Lions' lead creaped to just two (30-28) a minute into the second half after a jumper from the Bulldogs' Tom Norton. Southern pushed the lead to ten (38-28) after a jumper from Adams, and the lead was 14 after a layup from Rich Borries made the score 50-36 with 12:21 left.

A free-throw from Truman's Vesko Filchev made the Southern advantage 13 (52-39) at the 11-minute mark of the second half, but the Lions went on a 16-7 run to extend the lead to 22 (68-46) after a layup from Patrick Hester with just under seven minutes left. The lead was its highest of the night (29) after a pair of free-throws from Alburey Doss.

The Lions shot 44 percent in the game, but hit 58 percent from the field in the second half. Southern forced 22 Truman turnovers scoring 30 points off the miscues, and out scored the Bulldogs 36-16 in the paint. Another strong performance from the free-throw line tonight led to the Lions hitting 89 percent of their freebies (23-26) in the win.

Southern will be back in action this Saturday (December 5) as the Lions travel to Warrensburg to take on second ranked Central Missouri at 3:30 pm in the Multipurpose Building. Central defeated seventh ranked Southwest Baptist 115-99 tonight at home.