Ross Uthoff scored a career-high eight points for the balanced attack.

TERRE HAUTE, IND. -- Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology rallied from a 16-point first-half deficit to close within one point in the final three minutes, but Tri-State University played strong defense down the stretch to earn a 60-53 win in men's basketball action on Wednesday.

Senior Brian Bibb (Hoopeston, Ill.) led the Rose-Hulman attack with game-highs of 17 points and nine rebounds.  Junior Ross Uthoff (Crete, Ill./ Illinois Lutheran) added a career-high 10 points and sophomore Lorenzo Rice (Grandview, Mo.) came off the bench for nine.

Tony Benford and Wes Weir led the Tri-State offense with 12 points, and Maurice Brookins reached double figures with 11.

Tri-State led by 12 points midway through the second half at 45-33, before Rose-Hulman rattled off a 10-2 run to close within 47-45 on a three-pointer by senior Jason Bednarko (Athens, Ill.) with 6:59 left.  The Thunder maintained the lead by five points on two occasions, before Uthoff and Bibb scored back-to-back baskets to bring Rose-Hulman within 54-53 at the 2:53 mark.

Tri-State held the Engineers scoreless for final three minutes, and scored two key field goals to improve to 5-2 on the season.

"I'm disappointed with the way we started the game.  We tried to drive to the basket in the second half, but we got ourselves in too deep of a hole to get the win," said head coach Jim Shaw.

Ross Uthoff scored 10 points for a career-high total.

Tri-State opened with a strong start to take a 21-5 lead with 12:20 left in the first half.  The Thunder shot 44% in the opening stanza and held Rose-Hulman to 31%.

The Engineers rallied to within eight points at 27-19 as the game neared halftime, on a score by junior Ron George (Louisville, Ky./ Manual) and two layups by Bibb.