TERRE HAUTE, IND. --  The Rose-Hulman women's basketball squad relied on a 44-point second half to top visiting Defiance in HCAC play on Saturday afternoon.

The Engineers relied on a balanced scoring attack, with five Rose-Hulman players reaching double figures.  The Engineers also out rebounded the Yellow Jackets by a 41 to 23 margin.

Senior Jill Floyd (Bloomington, Ill./Olympia) paced the Engineer scoring effort with 16 points and dished out four assists.  Junior Liz Ridgway (Grosse Point, Mich/Northwestern Univ.) added 14 points, freshman Donna Marsh (Mobile, Ala./Baker) pitched in 13 points and grabbed six rebounds.

Rounding out the double-figure scorers for Rose-Hulman were seniors Katie Tharp (Linton/Linton-Stockton) and Candace Procter (Southfield, Mich./Groves) who each added 10 points apiece.

After trailing 35-31 at the half and trailing by nine with 14:35 to play, the Engineers tied the score at 55 on a jumper by Ridgway with 6:55 remaining.

The teams battled for throughout the remainder of the second half with Rose-Hulman taking the lead for good on a layup by Marsh at the 2:14 mark that made the score 67-65.

The Engineers sealed the game by hitting key free throws down the stretch and connecting on 20 of their 22 attempts from the charity stripe in the second half. 

The victory improves Rose-Hulman to 11-11 on the year and 7-6 in HCAC play.  The women's basketball team will return to action on Wednesday when they travel to Anderson University to take on the Ravens at 7:30 p.m.