BOX SCORE
HANOVER, IND. -- Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology earned a bid to the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Women's Basketball Tournament despite Saturday's 74-63 loss at Hanover College.
The Fightin' Engineers will face Hanover in a rematch of today's game in the opening round of the HCAC Tournament on Friday night. Rose-Hulman and Hanover will square off at 8 p.m. on the campus of Transylvania University.
In Saturday's game at Hanover. three Rose-Hulman players reached double figures in scoring. Freshman Cassidy Cain (Noblesville) led the offensive effort with a career-high 18 points on 5-6 from the field and 3-4 from three-point range.
Other Engineers in double figures included freshman Addie Johnson (Caledonia, Mich./Catholic Central) with 16 points, and freshman Carrie Morris (Altadena, Calif./Mayfield) with 10 points.
Katie Gahimer led the Hanover offense with 22 points, and Alicia Hopkins also reached double figures with 14 points for the Panthers.
Rose-Hulman jumped out to a 12-5 lead at the 15:20 mark, and the Fightin' Engineer lead reached 10 points at 22-12 on a layup by Johnson with 9:49 left in the first half. Hanover closed the half on a 9-2 run to trim Rose-Hulman's lead to 31-30 at the half.
In the second half, the two teams battled to a 36-36 tie after a three-pointer by Cain at the 16:04 mark. Hanover scored nine straight points to take a 45-36 edge, and Rose-Hulman withstood the charge to remain within 59-51 with 7:36 left.
The Panthers answered with eight straight points to push their lead to 67-51 and secure the win.
Rose-Hulman stands 12-13 on the season, while Hanover improved to 18-7. The rest of the HCAC field includes top seeded Transylvania, No. 2 Franklin, No. 4 Defiance and No. 5 Manchester.