Kansas City, Mo. -- The UMKC men's basketball team opened its regular season with an easy 80-33 victory over Truman State on Saturday night at the Swinney Recreation Center.  The Kangaroos shot 50 percent from the floor and had three players finish in double digits in the 47-point rout.

Junior Jay Couisnard paced the squad as he netted a game-high 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting.  Sophomore LaTreze Mushatt and freshman Kirk Korver also reached double digits as the duo scored 12 points apiece with both players making 5-of-7 shot attempts on the night.  Additionally, all 10 players that saw time scored in the contest.

UMKC came out strong from the opening tip, as it built a 14-2 lead over the first five-and-a-half minutes of the contest.   The squad then continued pouring it on offensively and limiting the Bulldogs defensively, as back-to-back buckets by freshman Fred Chatmon stretched the lead to 21 (34-13) with 7:40 left in the half. 

The lead swelled to 26 as the half ran down, as the 'Roos shot nearly 60 percent in the opening 20 minutes.  Korver led all scorers in the half, as he made all four of his shot attempts to finish with 10 points.

Coming out of the half, the 'Roos pushed the margin to 30 (54-24) on Couisnard's old-fashioned three-point play at the 15:20 mark.  After a Matt Patterson long ball made the score 60-31 at the 11:55 mark, UMKC held the Bulldogs without a point for nearly eight minutes and to just two points for the remainder of the game.

Defensively, the 'Roos man-to-man defense created 25 turnovers and limited Truman State to just .275 (11-40) percent shooting.  UMKC, meanwhile, connected on 29-of-58 attempts (.500), 8-of-21 three-pointers (.381) and dished out 20 assists on 29 field goals to cruise to the easy victory.

The win is the first season-opening victory during the Matt Brown era and the first for the program since the 2006-07 season.

UMKC (1-0) will return to action on Tuesday night when it faces Lincoln University at the SRC beginning at 7:05 p.m.