BOX SCORE
ANDERSON, IND. -- Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology opened the second half on a 20-3 run to pull away and earn a convincing 71-40 men's basketball victory at Anderson University on Wednesday night.
With the victory, the No. 23 ranked Fightin' Engineers improved to 18-2 on the season and maintain a one-game lead over No. 22 ranked Transylvania with a 12-1 conference record. The two nationally ranked teams will meet on Saturday afternoon at Transylvania.
Junior Julian Strickland (Indianapolis/Pike) led three players in double figures with 12 points. Senior Brenton Balsbaugh (Greenville, Ohio/Arcanum) added 11 points and a game-high nine rebounds. Junior Alec Houpt (Chesterton) pitched in with a career-high 10 points off the bench.
Junior Jake Dodd (St. Peters, Mo./Missouri-St. Louis) scored seven points, and three Fightin' Engineers had six points each for a balanced scoring attack. Isaac Loechle led the Anderson offense with 18 points.
Rose-Hulman shot 56% from the field to take control of the contest from the outset. A layup by senior Jon Gerken (Defiance, Ohio/Tinora), a three-pointer by junior James Pillischafske (Louisville, Ky./Male) and a score by Balsbaugh gave the Engineers an early 13-4 advantage.
Anderson trimmed the margin to 19-15 on a three-pointer by Cody Jackson at the 9:18 mark, but Rose-Hulman answered with a 13-2 spurt to take a 32-17 edge on a score by Dodd with 4:12 left in the opening half.
A three-point play by Strickland and three points from Balsbaugh helped the Engineer lead grow to 38-19 at the break.
In the second half, Rose-Hulman held Anderson to three points over the first nine minutes to build a 58-22 lead on a layup by Dodd at the 11:08 mark. The Engineers maintained control for the remainder of the contest.
Rose-Hulman travels to Transylvania on Saturday, while Anderson dropped to 8-12 and 4-9 in league play.