BOX SCORE
MILWAUKEE, WIS. -- Rose-Hulman Institute of
Technology won the Milwaukee School of Engineering men's
basketball All-Engineers Classic with a strong defensive
effort in a 55-28 victory over the host Raiders on Sunday.
Junior Julian Strickland (Indianapolis/Pike) led the balanced scoring attack with 10 points. Senior Austin Weatherford (Cicero/Hamilton Heights) added nine points, six rebounds and four assists.
Senior Jon Gerken (Defiance, Ohio/Tinora) scored seven points with five rebounds. Senior Brenton Balsbaugh (Greenville, Ohio/Arcanum), junior Jake Dodd (St. Peters, Mo./Missouri-St. Louis) and junior Alec Houpt (Chesterton) added five points each.
The story of the game was Rose-Hulman's defensive effort, however. The Fightin' Engineers held MSOE to just eight points in the first half and 2-20 from the field. For the game, Rose-Hulman allowed just 17% shooting from the field and 15% from three-point range to the Raiders.
Rose-Hulman jumped out to a 26-8 halftime lead by shooting 41% from the field in the opening 20 minutes. The Fightin' Engineers led 17-4 after 10 minutes, then relied on its defensive to take the 18-point edge into the locker room.
In the second half, Rose-Hulman built the lead to 43-13 at the 11:21 mark on a score by senior Nate Gissentanner (Conyers, Ga./Rockdale County), who also added six rebounds on the day.
Nathan Verdun came off the bench to lead MSOE in scoring with seven points.
Rose-Hulman stands 2-0 and won two games at a season opening invitational for the second straight year. The Fightin' Engineers travel to Carroll College, which advanced to the second round of the 2012 NCAA Division III Tournament, in suburban Milwaukee on Tuesday night.